B.J. Penn is the only fighter to win UFC titles in both the lightweight and welterweight divisions. He first captured the welterweight championship by submitting Matt Hughes at UFC 46 in January 2004, a major upset over one of the division’s dominant champions.
Penn later won the vacant UFC lightweight title at UFC 80 in January 2008, defeating Joe Stevenson by second-round rear-naked choke. That made him the first UFC fighter to hold championships in those two specific divisions. Randy Couture had also won UFC titles in two weight classes, but they were heavyweight and light heavyweight.
Penn’s achievement is sometimes confused with the broader “two-division champion” record. Conor McGregor later won featherweight and lightweight titles, while Georges St-Pierre won welterweight and middleweight titles. Neither duplicated Penn’s lightweight-welterweight combination.