The UFC is continuing to revamp as much as possible ahead of the new ESPN era. There were several reports about new championship belts coming out prior to UFC 232, but it was postponed for internal reasons. Some believe it had to do with the controversy surrounding the light heavyweight title bout between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. In any case, the UFC waited till the new year to unveil any sort of information regarding their new championship belts.
Today, as per the UFC website and social media pages, it became official.