Topps Chrome UFC is the most recognisable name in UFC cards, but it has not been around as long as people assume. The first set came out in 2017, and three sets in, the brand stopped because Topps lost the UFC licence. It came back in 2024. Here is the run, and the rookies in it that matter.
Topps Chrome UFC sets came out in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Panini held the UFC licence from 2021, and Chrome returned in 2024 after Fanatics, which owns Topps, signed an exclusive UFC deal. The key Chrome rookies are Ngannou #78 (2017), Gaethje #71 and O'Malley #84 (2018), and Makhachev #92 (2019).
The licence, in four dates
- October 2008: Topps gets the exclusive UFC card licence, according to Topps' own Ripped history. The first UFC set follows in 2009.
- 26 January 2021: Sports Collectors Daily reports a multi-year Panini deal. The move "ends UFC's relationship with Topps, which had held the contract since 2009", and Prizm is lined up as Panini's first product.
- 31 January 2024: UFC.com announces an "exclusive multi-year trading card partnership" with Fanatics Collectibles. It describes Topps' earlier partnership as running from 2009 to 2020.
- 2024: Topps Chrome UFC returns. UFC.com's announcement gave 28 February 2024 for retail and hobby; Checklist Insider and TCDB give 20 March 2024.
2017: the debut
Cardboard Connection dates 2017 Topps Chrome UFC to 20 September 2017. It calls it a debut release "only found in a hobby format": 100 base cards, 24 packs of four cards, and two autographs per box (three in hot boxes). The refractor rainbow set the pattern for all three Topps-era sets: Refractor, X-Fractor and a hot-box Diamond Refractor unnumbered, then Green /99, Blue Wave /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, Red /5 and a SuperFractor 1/1.
The rookie that matters is Francis Ngannou #78. TCDB flags it RC, and it is his earliest card. His other RC, Museum Collection #13, was not released until February 2018. Valentina Shevchenko #83 is also an RC-logo card, and Sports Card Investor calls it her "official rookie card". She has an earlier RC as well, 2017 Knockout #75 from May, so #83 is her Chrome rookie rather than her first. The details are in our Shevchenko rookie guide.
2018: Gaethje and O'Malley
2018 Topps Chrome UFC came out on 19 September 2018 (Cardboard Connection and TCDB), with the same 100-card, 24-pack format. Cardboard Connection's checklist marks two rookies with the RC logo: Justin Gaethje #71 and Sean O'Malley #84. TCDB flags both RC.
Neither is the only rookie its fighter has. Gaethje has three RC-logo cards from 2018, and Knockout #3 came out first, in July. O'Malley also has Museum Collection #39 from November. Chrome is O'Malley's earliest card, though. His FA-SOM autograph carries both a "1st Autograph" stamp and an RC badge. TCDB tags it AU only. Sports Card Investor calls his base card and rookie autograph "some of the most desired cards" in the set.
2019: the last Chrome before the gap
Cardboard Connection dates 2019 Topps Chrome UFC to 11 September 2019: 100 base cards plus 10 image variations, and a 40-card Fighter Autographs set. TCDB's rookie list for the set has 36 entries, among them Petr Yan, Maycee Barber, Ben Askren and Islam Makhachev. Sports Card Investor calls it "one of the deepest rookie classes in MMA card history".
Makhachev #92 is the headline. It is his first card of any kind and the only one TCDB flags RC. His Panini debuts came three years later and carry no RC flag. The same set has Israel Adesanya #57, which is regularly sold as a rookie. It isn't on TCDB's rookie list: his RC is the 2018 Museum Collection #42.
Several of the best-known Chrome "rookies" have an earlier or equal RC somewhere else. Check the release dates before paying a rookie premium.
The gap, and the return
Topps' 2020 UFC flagship was not a Chrome product. Cardboard Connection dates 2020 Topps UFC to 26 August 2020 and says its design was borrowed from 2020 Topps Series 1 Baseball. Panini then held the licence from 2021, starting with Prizm.
Checklist Insider describes 2024 Topps Chrome UFC as a return "after a five-year hiatus". The base set doubled to 200 cards, hobby boxes had 12 packs of eight with two autographs, and there were new signed sets including 24-card Chrome Rookie Autographs. Diego Lopes #26 is his RC, and his CRA-DLO rookie autograph prints an RC logo too. Chrome UFC has carried on each year since. Topps' Ripped history dates the 2026 set to 8 May 2026.
What we still don't know
Sources disagree on whether there was a 2020 Topps Chrome UFC. Topps' Ripped history describes the line "running annually through 2020". Sports Card Investor and Checklist Insider both treat 2019 as the last Topps-era release, and we have no 2020 Chrome UFC checklist on file. Until someone shows us one, we list the first run as 2017–2019. The 2024 release date is also split between 28 February (UFC.com's announcement) and 20 March (Checklist Insider, TCDB), and it may be that the two refer to different channels. Print runs for every unnumbered Chrome base card are unknown.
If you have a product sheet, sell sheet or sealed box for a 2020 Topps Chrome UFC, send it in. It would settle the question, and we will credit you as the source.
Sources
- Topps RippedTopps and UFC Card History
- Topps RippedTopps Chrome UFC Product History and Top 2026 Chases
- Sports Collectors DailyUFC Trading Card License Moving from Topps to Panini America
- UFC.comUFC And Fanatics Collectibles Announce Exclusive Trading Card Deal
- Cardboard Connection2017 Topps UFC Chrome Checklist, Set Info
- Cardboard Connection2018 Topps UFC Chrome Checklist, Set Info
- Cardboard Connection2019 Topps UFC Chrome Checklist
- Cardboard Connection2020 Topps UFC Checklist
- Checklist Insider2024 Topps Chrome UFC Checklist
- Sports Card InvestorYour Guide To Topps Chrome UFC Sets
- Trading Card Database2017 Topps Chrome UFC #78 Francis Ngannou
- Trading Card Database2018 Topps Chrome UFC #71 Justin Gaethje
- Trading Card Database2018 Topps Chrome UFC #84 Sean O'Malley
- Trading Card Database2019 Topps Chrome UFC #92 Islam Makhachev
- Trading Card DatabaseRookies - 2019 Topps Chrome UFC
