As of today, UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has broken the record for the longest time a champion has held a UFC title before first defending it.

184 days into Whittaker’s title reign, he did fight Yoel Romero in a bout that was originally scheduled to be a title defense, but unfortunately due to the Cuban missing weight it had to proceed as a non-title affair.

The table below shows the number of days it took each champion in UFC history to compete in the first defense of their title.

Average number of days before a UFC champion attempts the first defence of their title: 176.