Who will be UFC Middleweight champion at the end of 2026?

What you need to know

This market is asking a simple question: who holds the UFC Middleweight belt on December 31, 2026? The UFC Middleweight division is the 185-pound weight class, and at any given time one fighter holds that title. The market is not asking who wins any single fight — it's asking who is the official, undisputed champion when the clock hits noon ET on that final day of the year. Sean Strickland leads the odds at 40%, followed by Nassourdine Imavov at 27%, and Khamzat Chimaev at 18%. The market settles based on whoever the UFC officially lists as the undisputed Middleweight champion at noon ET on December 31, 2026. One important detail: an interim champion does not count. The UFC sometimes creates an 'interim' belt when the main champion is injured or unavailable — that would not be enough here. Only the full, recognized champion counts. If the belt happens to be vacant at that exact moment — for example, if a title was stripped and a new champion hasn't been crowned yet — the market resolves to 'Other' instead. None of the provided news headlines are relevant to the UFC Middleweight division or this market. There is no recent fight result or title-change news to point to here. The kind of update that would matter most is a title fight result, a fighter withdrawal or injury announcement, or the UFC scheduling a championship bout in the second half of 2026. A lot can change between now and December 31, 2026 — that's the core challenge. Championship fights happen, upsets occur, and injuries can sideline a champion and trigger a new title fight entirely. The title could change hands two or three times before year-end. Strickland leads at 40%, meaning the market sees no heavy favorite — more than half the probability is split between other fighters or unexpected outcomes. With roughly six months remaining, fight scheduling, injuries, and the unpredictability of combat sport all make this genuinely open.

The odds right now

• Sean Strickland-11.5 pts (1w)39%
• Nassourdine Imavov+4.8 pts (1w)27%
• Khamzat Chimaev18%
• Dricus Du Plessis+2.0 pts (1w)8%
• Caio Borralho+0.1 pts (1w)2%
• Israel Adesanya+0.3 pts (1w)1%
• Anthony Hernandez+0.7 pts (1w)1%
• Brendan Allen+0.1 pts (1w)0%
• Jared Cannonier0%
• Reinier de Ridder+0.1 pts (1w)0%
• Robert Whittaker+0.1 pts (1w)0%

Price history

How this resolves

Resolves December 31, 2026

This market will resolve according to the official UFC Middleweight division champion on December 31, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET. Only official UFC division champions will count. Interim champions will not count. If the relevant belt is vacant at this market’s check time, or there is otherwise no champion in the specified division, this market will resolve to “Other”. The primary resolution source for this market will be official information from the UFC (https://www.ufc.com/athletes).

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