We went through every UFC fight recorded by UFC Stats, the fight-by-fight database at ufcstats.com: 8,909 bouts from UFC 2 in March 1994 through September 26, 2026. In that time 204 pairs of fighters met more than once, 185 of them twice, 18 three times and one, Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno, four times. In 24 pairs the first fight ended in a draw (8) or a no contest (16), leaving no winner to repeat, and four rematches had no winner either: three draws and the 2017 rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, overturned to a no contest. That leaves 176 rematches.
How often the winner wins the rematch in the UFC
The first-fight winner won 104 of the 176, or 59.1 percent. With this many fights the true rate could be anywhere from about 52 to 66 percent, so the edge is real but modest: in 72 rematches, two in five, the fighter who had lost the first time won.
The stakes mattered more than the timing. When the rematch was for a UFC title, the first-fight winner won 51 of 76, 67 percent; with no title on the line, 53 of 100, close to a coin flip. A gap that size would turn up by chance about one time in 15.
| Rematch | Fights | First-fight winner won | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| All rematches | 176 | 104 | 59% |
| Immediate | 23 | 14 | 61% |
| Later | 153 | 90 | 59% |
| For a title | 76 | 51 | 67% |
| Immediate, for a title | 14 | 10 | 71% |
| No title at stake | 100 | 53 | 53% |
UFC immediate rematches and rematches years later
Timing made little difference. In 23 rematches neither fighter had another UFC fight in between, and the first winner won 14 of them (61 percent); in the other 153 they won 59 percent. Immediate rematches came a median of just under six months after the first fight, and all 176 a median of 2.4 years after.
The length of the wait may matter more than whether anyone fought in between. First winners took 27 of 39 rematches held within a year (69 percent) and 39 of 73 held three or more years later (53 percent), though a gap that size would turn up by chance about one time in nine.
Only four immediate title rematches went the other way: Mauricio Rua over Lyoto Machida in 2010, Amanda Nunes over Julianna Peña in 2022, Israel Adesanya over Alex Pereira in 2023 and Pereira over Magomed Ankalaev in 2025. With no belt at stake, Conor McGregor beat Nate Diaz in August 2016, less than six months after Diaz had submitted McGregor. Another 15 immediate rematches followed a first fight with no winner and are not counted.
UFC title rematches
Most of the 76 title rematches, 48, were the second title fight between the same two fighters, and the first winner won 33 of those (69 percent). A common case is a new champion's first defense against the fighter they beat for the belt. Our study of first title defenses counts 22 since 1997, 17 of them the next UFC fight for both: 13 new champions kept the belt, 8 lost it and Alexa Grasso drew with Valentina Shevchenko in 2023.
How the first fight ended: knockouts, submissions and decisions
Eighty of the 176 first fights went to the judges, in line with UFC fights as a whole, almost half of which are decided on the scorecards. A unanimous decision held up better than any other common result: after one, the first winner took 40 of 58 rematches (69 percent); after a split or majority decision, 11 of 22, a coin flip.
Finishes carried over less. After a knockout or technical knockout the first winner won 36 of 64 rematches (56 percent), and after a submission 15 of 30. Both first fights that ended in a disqualification, Frank Mir's over Wes Sims in 2003 and Aljamain Sterling's over Petr Yan in 2021, were followed by a second win for the same fighter. The samples are small: the gap between unanimous and split or majority decisions would turn up by chance about one time in eight.
Fighters who avenged a loss in the UFC
Counting every later meeting, not only the rematch, 70 fighters have avenged a UFC loss by beating the same opponent later in the UFC, 80 opponents in all; 30 of those wins came in title fights. Among them:
- Robbie Lawler waited longest: 17 and a half years passed between Nick Diaz's win over Lawler at UFC 47 in 2004 and Lawler's over Diaz at UFC 266 in 2021.
- Max Holloway beat two fighters more than 12 years after first losing to them, Dustin Poirier at UFC 318 in July 2025 and McGregor at UFC 329 in July 2026.
- Georges St-Pierre lost only twice in the UFC, to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra, and avenged both, in 2006 and 2008, winning the welterweight title each time.
- Stipe Miocic avenged losses to Junior dos Santos and Daniel Cormier, both in heavyweight title fights.
Every UFC trilogy fight and how it ended
Nineteen pairs had met three or more times in the UFC by the end of September 2026: 18 trilogies and the four flyweight title fights between Figueiredo and Moreno. In eight of the 19 series every fight was for a title. The fighter who won the first fight won the series seven times and the one who lost it eight times; two series ended tied, at a win apiece and a draw, and two began with a fight that had no winner.
When a trilogy reached its third fight at one win apiece, the fighter who had won the rematch won again eight times in 11. Three series were sweeps: Tito Ortiz over Ken Shamrock, Frankie Edgar over BJ Penn and Alexander Volkanovski over Max Holloway.
| Fighters | Years | Winners, in order | Series |
|---|---|---|---|
| Randy Couture vs. Vitor Belfort | 1997, 2004, 2004 | Couture, Belfort, Couture | Couture 2-1 |
| Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock | 2002, 2006, 2006 | Ortiz, Ortiz, Ortiz | Ortiz 3-0 |
| Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell | 2003, 2005, 2006 | Couture, Liddell, Liddell | Liddell 2-1 |
| BJ Penn vs. Matt Hughes | 2004, 2006, 2010 | Penn, Hughes, Penn | Penn 2-1 |
| Matt Hughes vs. Georges St-Pierre | 2004, 2006, 2007 | Hughes, St-Pierre, St-Pierre | St-Pierre 2-1 |
| Andrei Arlovski vs. Tim Sylvia | 2005, 2006, 2006 | Arlovski, Sylvia, Sylvia | Sylvia 2-1 |
| Sam Stout vs. Spencer Fisher | 2006, 2007, 2012 | Stout, Fisher, Stout | Stout 2-1 |
| Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin | 2006, 2009, 2012 | Ortiz, Griffin, Griffin | Griffin 2-1 |
| Gray Maynard vs. Frankie Edgar | 2008, 2011, 2011 | Maynard, draw, Edgar | Tied 1-1-1 |
| BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar | 2010, 2010, 2014 | Edgar, Edgar, Edgar | Edgar 3-0 |
| Nik Lentz vs. Charles Oliveira | 2011, 2015, 2019 | No contest, Oliveira, Oliveira | Oliveira 2-0 |
| Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos | 2011, 2012, 2013 | dos Santos, Velasquez, Velasquez | Velasquez 2-1 |
| Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway | 2012, 2019, 2025 | Poirier, Poirier, Holloway | Poirier 2-1 |
| Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor | 2014, 2021, 2021 | McGregor, Poirier, Poirier | Poirier 2-1 |
| Kamaru Usman vs. Leon Edwards | 2015, 2022, 2023 | Usman, Edwards, Edwards | Edwards 2-1 |
| Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier | 2018, 2019, 2020 | Cormier, Miocic, Miocic | Miocic 2-1 |
| Max Holloway vs. Alexander Volkanovski | 2019, 2020, 2022 | Volkanovski, Volkanovski, Volkanovski | Volkanovski 3-0 |
| Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno | 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 | Draw, Moreno, Figueiredo, Moreno | Moreno 2-1-1 |
| Valentina Shevchenko vs. Alexa Grasso | 2023, 2023, 2024 | Grasso, draw, Shevchenko | Tied 1-1-1 |
UFC rematches in 2026, and Yan vs. Dvalishvili 3
Up to September 26, this year went against the pattern: in the 10 rematches of 2026 in which both fights had a winner, the first winner won four. Two of those four were the year's title rematches, Alexander Volkanovski beating Diego Lopes again in January and Joshua Van beating Alexandre Pantoja again in September.
Two more were booked on the cards UFC.com listed on September 30. Merab Dvalishvili beat Petr Yan on a unanimous decision in March 2023, and Yan took the bantamweight title from Dvalishvili the same way at UFC 323 in December 2025. Neither fought again before UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi on October 24, where Yan made his first defense against Dvalishvili and won another unanimous decision, 48-47 on all three cards. It fits the trilogy pattern above: when a series reached a third fight at one win apiece, the winner of the rematch had won again eight times in 11.
That third fight made them the 20th pair to meet three times in the UFC; the counts and tables above stop at September 26 and leave it out. On November 21 in Doha, Amir Albazi and Alessandro Costa meet again at flyweight; Albazi stopped Costa in the third round of their first fight, in December 2022. The Vertize UFC schedule lists the cards month by month, and the UFC hub explains the divisions and their weight limits.
UFC rematches: frequently asked questions
How often does the winner of the first fight win the UFC rematch? In 59 percent of rematches: 104 of the 176 in which both fights had a winner, and 67 percent of those for a title.
How many trilogies have there been in the UFC? Eighteen pairs had fought three times in the UFC by the end of September 2026, and Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno four times. Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili joined them on October 24, when Yan beat Dvalishvili on a unanimous decision at UFC 333.
Who has beaten the same opponent three times in the UFC? Three fighters, each in a trilogy that went 3-0: Tito Ortiz against Ken Shamrock, Frankie Edgar against BJ Penn and Alexander Volkanovski against Max Holloway.
What is the longest wait to avenge a loss in the UFC? Robbie Lawler's: 17 and a half years, from Nick Diaz's win at UFC 47 in 2004 to Lawler's at UFC 266 in 2021.
How this was built: every UFC fight recorded by UFC Stats (ufcstats.com), 8,909 bouts from UFC 2 in March 1994 to September 26, 2026, from the copy on GitHub refreshed on September 27. UFC Stats has no record of UFC 1, and fights in other promotions, such as the WEC, Pride or Strikeforce, are not counted. Fighters are matched by their UFC Stats profile. A rematch is a pair's second fight, and an immediate rematch one with no other UFC fight for either fighter in between. Title fights are those for an undisputed or interim UFC title or the Superfight Championship of 1995 and 1996, not tournament finals. Pairs whose first fight or rematch ended in a draw or no contest are left out of the rates. Ranges are 95 percent Wilson intervals, and the chance figures come from two-sided Fisher exact tests. Booked rematches are from the cards on UFC.com on September 30, 2026, and the UFC 333 result and the November 21 card were checked on ESPN on November 3.