UPDATE 5/26/13:

It's official! Cain is the new Heavyweight Lineal King with 21 titles and an 81% Unification rate. Also impressive is the fact that he now holds all 11 defunct HW lineal titles, tracing the last man to ever hold the belt of a now defunct organization to today. This puts Cain at 2nd on the lineal title leaderboard. Ben Henderson remains in the top spot with 25 titles. In third place is Anderson Siva with 18 and in fourth place is GSP with 17. The next big unification opportunity will be GSP vs. Hendricks where 22 titles and a chance to surpass Cain on the leaderboard will be on the line. Look for the Welterweight lineal title picture in a future post.

For fun I thought I'd give you the lineage of the belts that are left to unify at HW:

1. Bellator MMA

History: Original title was held by Cole Konrad. He retired undefeated, so the next iteration was determined by Bellator's most recent HW tournament which was won by Alexander Volkov

2. M-1 Challenge

History: Guram Gugenishvili → Kenny Garner → Konstantin Gluhov

3. Legacy FC

History: Derrick Lewis won the inaugural championship with a win over Jared Rosholt. He has since defended the belt once

4. UCMMA

History: First, it should be noted that Neil Grove won the inaugural championship in 2008 and then lost it to Cole Konrad in the Bellator tournament final. Since Konrad retired, we go to the 2nd iteration of the belt to determine a champion.

Ben Smith → Oli Thompson → Shawn Jordan → Cheick Kongo → Roy Nelson

5. WEC

History with just HW bouts: James Irvin → Mike Kyle → Devin Cole → Krzysztof Soszynski → Mike Whithead → King Mo (dead ends because of change in weight)

History Allowing non-Heavyweight bouts: James Irvin → Mike Kyle → Devin Cole → Allan Goes → Alex Schoenauer → Mike Ciesnolevicz → André Gusmão → Jon Jones → Matt Hamill → Rampage Jackson → Jon Jones

ORIGINAL POST 5/23/13:

When Bigfoot rematches with Velasquez on Saturday night, the current UFC title will not be the only thing on the line. The original UFC title, which was awarded the night Mark Coleman defeated Dan Severn at UFC 12 in 1997 and eventually left with Randy Couture when he went to Japan, will finally be unified with the current UFC strap owned by Cain Velasquez. In lineal terms, the HW title remains the only belt in the UFC that is not owned by the current UFC champion.

To add to the excitement, besides the original UFC belt, there will be 20 other lineal titles on the line! The winner of this fight will rise to 2nd on the Lineal Title Leaderboard (look to bottom of post), just below Ben Henderson and his 25 titles. The winner will also boast an impressive 80% Unification rate of all major MMA Heavyweight titles. The 5 Major titles that remain to be unified after Saturday's contest are:

1. Bellator MMA - Alexander Volkov (or Cole Konrad if he comes out of retirement)

2. M-1 Challenge - Konstantin Gluhov

3. Legacy FC - Derrick Lewis

4. UCMMA - Roy Nelson

5. WEC - Jon Jones (If you allow non-HW bouts)

Below is a list of all the Heavyweight titles that are at stake Saturday night and how they arrived at their current owners:

1. UFC

History: Coleman → Smith → Couture → Inoue → Kerr → Fujita → Coleman → Big Nog → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

Alternate History from UFC 1: Gracie → Sakuraba → Vovchanchyn → Coleman → Big Nog → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

2. Pride FC

History: Big Nog → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

3. WEC - Super Heavyweight

History: Waterman → Cro Cop → Randleman → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

4. Strikeforce

History: Overeem → Bigfoot

5. IFL

History: Big Country → Arlovski → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

6. EliteXC

History: Bigfoot → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

7. Dream

History: Overeem → Bigfoot

8. Gladiator Challenge

History: Lambert → Sylvia → Mir → Cruz → Monson → Sylvia → Couture → Lesnar → Velasquez → Dos Santos → Velasquez

9. WAMMA

History: Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

10. IronHeart Crown

History: Godsey → Hoffman → Buentello → Arlovski → Sylvia → Couture → Lesnar → Valasquez → Dos Santos → Velasquez

11. King of the Cage - Heavyweight

History: Hoffman → Barnett → Cro Cop → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

12. King of the Cage - Super Heavyweight

History: Bobish → Ambriz → Barnett → Cro Cop → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

13. Cage Warrior

History: Thomas → Foki → Perosh → Monson → Sylvia → Couture → Lesnar → Velasquez → Dos Santos → Velasquez

14. Cage Fury

History: Marrero → Gonzaga → Couture → Lesnar → Valasquez → Dos Santos → Velasquez

15. Cage Rage - British Version

History: Tedoradze → Claas Vieira → Nastula → Barnett → Big Nog → Mir → Lesnar → Velasquez → Dos Santos → Velasquez

16. Pancrase - Super Heavyweight

History: Kosaka → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

17. Pancrase - Heavyweight

History: Takahashi → Barnett → Cro Cop → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

18. M-1 Challenge - Inaugural Open-weight Tournament

History: Schrijber → Yvel → Schrijber → Avetisyan → Duarte → Schrijber → Schilt → Barnett → Cro Cop → Fedor → Werdum → Overeem → Bigfoot

19. Icon Sport

History: Cabbage → Sylvia → Mir → Cruz → Monson → Sylvia → Couture → Lesnar → Velasquez → Dos Santos → Velasquez

20. TKO

History: Alvarez → Cabbage → Arlovski → Sylvia → Couture → Lesnar → Velasquez → Dos Santos → Velasquez

21. Rings - Open-weight Tournament

History: Tamura → Bitsadze → Tamura → Sobral → Henderson → Silva → Hunt → Barnett → Cro Cop → Gonzaga → Couture → Lesnar → Velasquez → Dos Santos → Velasquez

Important Notes:

• In order to keep these titles in their original weight class, only bouts contested at Heavyweight or above have been included.
• The original King of Pancrase Open-weight title dead ends at Bas Rutten due to retirement from MMA
• The Icon Sport title actually dates back to when the promotion was known as Superbrawl
• The Ironheart Crown title is the second iteration. The first dead ends due to a change in weight class

Lineal Title Leaderboard:

1. Benson Henderson (25 titles) 83% Unification

2. Anderson Silva (18 titles) 60% Unification

3. GSP (17 titles) 61% Unification

4. Jon Jones (14 titles) 65% Unification

5. Bigfoot Silva (13 titles) 50% Unification

6. Cain Velasquez (8 titles) 31% Unification

7. Jose Aldo (6 titles) 29% Unification

8. Mighty Mouse (5 titles) 56% Unification

8. Dominick Cruz (5 titles) 26% Unification

8. Johny Hendricks (5 titles) 19% Unification

9. Marlon Moraes (4 titles)

9. Vitor Belfort (4 titles)

9. Akira Corassani (4 titles)

9. Constantinos Philippou (4 titles)

10. Gegard Moussasi (3 titles)

10. Pat Curran (3 titles)

10. Bibiano Fernandes (3 titles)

10. Ricardo Lamas (3 titles)

Bonus data:

Here are some links to other Lineal title posts that I've done:

Fun with Lineal Titles

More Fun with Lineal Titles

K-1 Lineal Title

Lightweight Breakdown

Henderson: The New King

Lineal Titles of Luke Rockhold

I just started tracking another version of the lineal titles. This one is for Promotions that go under. I take whomever was the last man to be champion and trace the title to where it is today. Interesting, of the 11 HW and SHW titles that can be traced from these defunct organizations, all of them will be unified in this fight. These include the following: