The 10 Youngest UFC Champions at Their First Undisputed Title

Jon Jones, Joshua Van and José Aldo are the three youngest undisputed UFC division champions, counting the age when each first received that championship. Jones became champion at 23 years, 8 months; Van at 24 years, 1 month, 26 days; and Aldo at 24 years, 2 months, 11 days. UFC’s Van profile confirms his second-place standing behind Jones.

The comparison needs a consistent definition: an interim belt, an early UFC tournament victory and an undisputed division championship are not interchangeable.

The 10 youngest undisputed UFC champions

Scope: UFC division championships through November 9, 2026, men and women combined. Each fighter appears once, at their first undisputed championship. Interim titles and tournament titles are excluded. Championships awarded during a promotion merger count from the formal UFC belt presentation, rather than the earlier title win in another organization.

Ages below are calculated in completed calendar years, months and remaining days—not rounded decimal years. Fighter links provide the birth dates and bout records; Aldo’s awarded title is explained beneath the table.

Rank	Fighter	Age at first title	Division*	First championship event and date
1	Jon Jones	23 years, 8 months	Light heavyweight	TKO over Mauricio Rua, UFC 128 — March 19, 2011
2	Joshua Van	24 years, 1 month, 26 days	Flyweight	TKO (injury) over Alexandre Pantoja, UFC 323 — December 6, 2025
3	José Aldo	24 years, 2 months, 11 days	Featherweight	Awarded inaugural UFC belt at UFC 123 — November 20, 2010
4	Josh Barnett	24 years, 4 months, 12 days	Heavyweight	TKO over Randy Couture, UFC 36 — March 22, 2002
5	Carlos Newton	24 years, 8 months, 17 days	Welterweight	Submission over Pat Miletich, UFC 31 — May 4, 2001
6	Frank Shamrock	25 years, 13 days	Light heavyweight	Submission over Kevin Jackson, Ultimate Japan — December 21, 1997
7	Frank Mir	25 years, 26 days	Heavyweight	Submission over Tim Sylvia, UFC 48 — June 19, 2004
8	Ricco Rodriguez	25 years, 1 month, 8 days	Heavyweight	TKO over Randy Couture, UFC 39 — September 27, 2002
9	B.J. Penn	25 years, 1 month, 18 days	Welterweight	Submission over Matt Hughes, UFC 46 — January 31, 2004
10	Tito Ortiz	25 years, 2 months, 22 days	Light heavyweight	Decision over Wanderlei Silva, UFC 25 — April 14, 2000

Division names follow today’s championship lineages. Shamrock and Ortiz won the belt then called middleweight, which belongs to the current light heavyweight lineage, not today’s 185-pound championship.

Five fighters in this top 10 became undisputed champions before turning 25. The next five were all still within three months of their 25th birthdays. Exact dates matter: Rodriguez and Penn both appear as “25 years, 1 month” when days are omitted, but Rodriguez was ten days younger at his title capture.

Why Aldo’s date changes his position

Aldo became UFC featherweight champion through the WEC–UFC merger, not by winning a new UFC championship bout. UFC identifies UFC 123 as the event where he was named inaugural champion.

Counting only a fighter’s first UFC title-fight victory produces a different order. Aldo’s first such win was against Mark Hominick on April 30, 2011, when he was 24 years, 7 months, 21 days old. Under that rule, Barnett moves ahead of him. Counting Aldo’s 2009 WEC championship would answer a cross-promotion question instead. His UFC championship history distinguishes the awarded belt from his later defenses.

What happens if interim champions count?

Max Holloway enters at No. 6, ahead of Shamrock, if interim UFC division titles are included. He beat Anthony Pettis for the interim featherweight belt at UFC 206 on December 10, 2016—just six days after his 25th birthday. His undisputed title followed against Aldo on June 3, 2017, at 25 years, 5 months, 30 days. Those are separate milestones in the official featherweight lineage, with his birth date recorded by UFC Stats.

That inclusion leaves the first five places unchanged and moves Shamrock, Mir, Rodriguez and Penn down one place each. Ortiz falls out of the top 10. For the bout’s title conditions, see our UFC 206 results and interim-title context.

The youngest woman—and a short reign that still counts

Rose Namajunas is the youngest women’s UFC champion and sits immediately outside the undisputed top 10, at No. 11. She stopped Joanna Jędrzejczyk at UFC 217 on November 4, 2017, aged 25 years, 4 months, 6 days, to win the women’s strawweight title.

Barnett remains included despite losing his belt outside competition. UFC records that he was stripped after testing positive for steroids, while UFC Stats still records his Couture bout as a win. This ranking measures age at championship acquisition, not successful defenses or length of reign.

Early tournament winners are a separate category. The Jon Jones record and Belfort tournament distinction covers that single-record question in more detail.