Historic UFC Middleweight Champions

Belt Holder	Won belt at	Date	Location	Title Defenses
Dave Menne	UFC 33	September 28, 2001	Las Vegas, NV

Murilo Bustamante	UFC 35	January 11, 2002	Las Vegas, NV	- defeated Matt Lindland at UFC 37 on May 10, 2002 in Bossier City, LA

After it was announced that Bustamante had signed with Pride, Bustamante was stripped of the UFC Middleweight Championship belt

Evan Tanner	UFC 51	February 5 , 2005	Las Vegas, NV

Rich Franklin	UFC 53	June 4 , 2005	Atlantic City, NJ	- defeated Nate Quarry at UFC 56 on November 19, 2005 in Las Vegas, NV - defeated David Loiseau at UFC 58 on March 4, 2006 in Las Vegas, NV

Anderson Silva	UFC 64	October 14, 2006	Las Vegas, NV	- defeated Nate Marquardt at UFC 73 on July 7, 2007 in Sacramento, CA - defeated Rich Franklin at UFC 77 on October 20, 2007 in Cincinnati, OH - defeated Dan Henderson at UFC 82 on March 1, 2008 in Columbus, OH - defeated Patrick Côté at UFC 90 on October 25, 2008 in Rosemont, IL - defeated Thales Leites at UFC 97 on April 18, 2009 in Montreal, Canada - defeated Demian Maia at UFC 112 on April 10, 2010 in Abu Dhabi, UAE - defeated Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 on August 7, 2010 in Oakland, CA