What Is The Value Of A UFC Belt? (And Are They Real Gold)

We often see championship UFC fighters hoisting their belts high above their heads. As fans and spectators, many wonder if these belts are actually made of gold and what they are worth. In this article, we're going to take a look at if you have UFC belts are made of real gold, and how much they're valued at.

Between the period of 2001 and 2018, the UFC classic championship belt was in use. This is a descriptor of a style as well as the materials and the belt was made out of.

The current belt in 2021 is now valued at three times more than this previous style which was ended in 2018. This is referred to as the UFC legacy championship belt. The belt is customized for each individual champion by weight class, defenses, and country. There is a new belt made for each match.

The UFC belt weighs about 10 1/2 - 12 pounds, depending on reports. Any stones present on the belt made of white cubic zirconia and created ruby (these are both synthetic versions of the real stone - these represent wins). Are the diamonds in the belt real?

It depends on if you think that white cubic zirconia is real or not. The diamonds are real diamonds, and engineered from synthetic material, but they are not naturally occurring.

 The actual gold aspects of the belt are real and made out of high polished gold.

For example, the first belt a champion gets will have no red stones on the side plate of the belt. However, additional wins will be represented by red stones. If a competitor is the champion of multiple weight divisions, they will have multiple UFC belts.

The value of a UFC belt is not public information, but some fighters have stated that they are valued about $300,000.

According to a fighter podcast, Dana White told Rashad Evans that the belts that some older fighters have are worth around $300,000. This is discussing the old version of the belt, so the new version (2018 and up) should be assumed to be even more valuable.

This given value actually weighs in with the weight of the belt. If a belt weighs 12 pounds, and we assume that that 12 pounds is primarily made up of the golden metal embossed on the leather strap, we can assume that 95% of the belt weight comes from gold.

With 2021 gold prices ($1812.00 per OZ), 11.4lbs of 24k gold comes out to be worth $301,000.

For fighters, the value of the belt doesn't really matter, instead it is the sentimental value of it.

The UFC also sells replica belts on their website. These are not made out of the same materials as the real ones, and don't carry any collectible value, but are still sold for roughly $800-$1000.