Gold rush: 5 UFC champions who dared to conquer 2 divisions

For some champions, one taste of gold isn't enough.

On Nov. 12, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor will become the latest cage warrior to challenge for a title in a different division when he challenges lightweight king Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden. And he becomes only the second fighter to do so while currently holding a strap of his own.

Related: Conor McGregor to face Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in New York

Few have dared to tread the high-risk, high-reward path of a two-division ruler, but here are five ambitious champions who preceded McGregor's try with varying degrees of success.

Randy Couture

By the time Randy Couture decided to make a move down to 205 pounds, he'd already captured the UFC heavyweight title on two separate occasions. In his first fight at light heavyweight, he took out Chuck Liddell to capture an interim title, but it wasn't until he faced off with Tito Ortiz at UFC 44 that history was truly made.

Then 40 years old, Couture outworked an opponent 11 years his junior to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion on Sept. 26, 2003. "The Natural" became the first fighter ever to capture belts in two different weight classes.

BJ Penn

BJ Penn got the most difficult half of the dual-division achievement out of the way early, shocking the world when he choked out the previously unbeatable welterweight legend Matt Hughes to win his first world title at just 25 years old.

The 170-pound ascension by "The Prodigy" was necessitated by the UFC not having a lightweight title at the time. When that title was introduced in 2006, it would only be two years before Penn captured it by knocking out Sean Sherk at UFC 84.

To make Penn's achievements even more impressive, he looped back around to welterweight in his next fight rather than defend the 155-pound belt. He failed in his bid to unseat Georges St-Pierre at UFC 94 (only "GSP" had a title on the line), but it was the first time the UFC had allowed two current titleholders to face one another.

Frankie Edgar

After ending Penn's reign at 155 pounds, Frankie Edgar defended the belt on three separate occasions before losing a pair of championship bouts to Benson Henderson. It was unlikely he would be granted another shot at Henderson, so "The Answer" made the wise move to drop down to a more natural weight class of 145 pounds.

There was no easing Edgar into the division. An injury to Erik Koch opened the door for Edgar to face featherweight champion Jose Aldo at UFC 156, a mountain that was too tall for even the enterprising Edgar to climb. Three years later, Edgar earned another crack at joining Penn and Couture in the history books when he battled Aldo in a rematch at UFC 200, but the result was the same: A unanimous decision win for Aldo.

Vitor Belfort

Even if Anderson Silva hadn't stopped him with an unsolicited foot massage to the face, Vitor Belfort's place on this list would be a dubious one.

"The Phenom" won the light heavyweight title in 2004, though it is a victory that is not remembered kindly. His challenge of champion Randy Couture ended with a freak accident in which a seam on his glove scraped Couture's eye, prompting a doctor stoppage. Belfort was ruled the winner, only to lose the belt back to Couture in his first title defense.

Nevertheless, Belfort was technically eligible to become a two-division champ when he challenged Silva at UFC 126 for the middleweight title. And make history he did, ending up on the receiving end of one of the most humiliating KOs ever.

Lyoto Machida

Lyoto Machida became the champ at 205 pounds with a thrilling KO of Rashad Evans, but he only managed one defense against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua before then losing his title to Shogun in a rematch. After going 3-3 in his next six fights (including a title match loss to Jon Jones), Machida decided to test the waters at middleweight.

Two impressive wins over Mark Munoz and Gegard Mousasi earned him a shot at Chris Weidman at UFC 175. The two went to war in a match-of-the-year candidate that ended with Machida falling just short of another championship belt.