Top 10 female UFC fighters of all time

UFC has some of the best professional fighters. Let's have a look at 10 of the best women fighters.


Top 10 female UFC fighters of all time

Amanda Nunes, Ronda Rousey and Valentina Shevchenko (via IMAGO)

In recent years, UFC women’s division has grown tremendously. It all started in 2012 when Dana White signed Ronda Rousey as the first female inductee of UFC. After that, several women athletes like Amanda Nunes, Valentina Shevchenko, and others made their name in the promotion. As such, let’s have a look at the top 10 female UFC fighters of all time.

ADVERTISEMENT

It was not an easy road for female fighters to make it in the biggest promotion in mixed martial arts. Before Ronda Rousey’s introduction, UFC head honcho, White was not a fan of watching women fight in the octagon. However, thanks to “Rowdy” Rousey, White was convinced there was a future for women in fighting. Since then, the UFC has produced several female superstars who have sold out to crowds as big as the men of the promotion.

Rousey was the inaugural UFC women’s bantamweight champion, and it was the first women’s division in the UFC. After that, UFC also added featherweight, flyweight, and strawweight divisions to the promotional roster for women. Over the years, UFC has seen many dominating UFC women’s champions, such as Ronda Rousey, Amanda Nunes, Cris Cyborg, Holly Holm, Valentina Shevchenko, Zhang Weili, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Rose Namajunas, and many others.

Honorable Mentions

Before we proceed to our top 10 female UFC fighters, let’s take a look at some fighters who missed out on being on our list. Cat Zingano is one of the most talented fighters to ever step inside the UFC octagon and never win the belt. Zingano was brutal and in her career has knocked out giants such as Amanda Nunes and Miesha Tate in non-title bouts. Carla Esparza is an outstanding fighter who won the strawweight title twice.

ADVERTISEMENT
Julianna Pena, Carla Esparza and Raquel Pennington held the UFC championship
Julianna Pena, Carla Esparza and Raquel Pennington held the UFC championship (via Instagram)

Julianna Pena is another fighter who never successfully defended her title. Yet, she is one of the very few women who have defeated Amanda Nunes. Germaine de Randamie defeated Holly Holm in 2017 to become the featherweight Champion. Apart from this, we have Raquel Pennington had a long UFC career. She recently became the women’s bantamweight champion. Tatiana Suarez deserves an honorable mention for her elite skillset. If not for injuries, she would have had a fantastic career.

List of top female UFC fighters of all time


10. Alexa Grasso

Alexa Grasso is the current flyweight champion of the UFC. She became champion after defeating Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 285. The Mexican was on a four-fight win streak before getting a shot at the title.

Alexa Grasso with Joe Rogan
Alexa Grasso with Joe Rogan (via Imago)

She also defended her title against Shevchenko in a controversial draw in 2023. Many believed Shevchenko did enough to win the title back. In her 12 fights in the UFC, she has eight wins, three losses, and one draw but remains undefeated in the flyweight division.

9. Zhang Weili 

Zhang Weili is a two-time women’s strawweight champion and is the first-ever UFC Chinese champion. Weili is a relentless fighter and puts a lot of pressure through her striking as well as wrestling.

ADVERTISEMENT
Zhang Weili 
Zhang Weili (Image Courtesy: UFC)

Weili has fought some of the legendary strawweight fighters like Carla Esparza, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, and Rose Namajunas. She could make the case to become the strawweight GOAT when all is said and done.

8. Rose Namajunas

Rose Namajunas is one of the best female champions in UFC history. The strawweight fighter fought for the inaugural strawweight belt. After failing to become the inaugural champ, Namajunas eventually attained gold in 2017. Her win against Joanna Jedrzejczyk was one of the biggest upsets in the history of the UFC.

Rose Namajunas
Rose Namajunas (via: blogspot.com)

“Thug Rose” defeated Joanna at UFC 217 via first-round TKO and got the championship wrapped around her waist. She once defended her title against Jedrzejczyk before losing it to Jessica Andrade at UFC 237.

Namajunas worked her way back to the title and became the champion again by snatching the belt from Zhang Weili at UFC 261. Namajunas’s title reign again ended after Carla Esparza beat her in one of the most uneventful fights of all time.

ADVERTISEMENT

7. Cris Cyborg

Cris Cyborg is one of the biggest names in women’s MMA. She is the only fighter in MMA history, male or female, to hold a world championship across four major MMA promotions around the world.

Cris Cyborg
Cris Cyborg (via MMA Mania)

Cyborg made her UFC debut against Leslie Smith at UFC 198, and then she fought against Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 for the vacant UFC women’s featherweight championship. Cyborg won this fight by a third-round TKO and got the championship wrapped around her waist.

She defended the title twice after this before losing it to Amanda Nunes at UFC 232. Cyborg held the title for 517 days, and after her loss against Nunes, she had one more fight in the UFC. Cris Cyborg is currently fighting for Bellator and is the current Bellator Women’s Featherweight Champion. Cris Cyborg is no surprise to our list of the top 10 female UFC fighters of all time.

6. Miesha Tate

Miesha Tate had immense popularity in her prime. She is a former Strikeforce bantamweight champion and is a UFC veteran. She had a fierce rivalry against Ronda Rousey.

ADVERTISEMENT
Miesha Tate
Miesha Tate (Image Courtesy: UFC)

The ‘Cupcake’ has fought tough opponents such as Holly Holm, Amanda Nunes, Ronda Rousey, Cat Zingano, etc. The American is well known for her wrestling and BJJ, which helped her win the UFC women’s bantamweight championship in 2016. 

5. Holly Holm

Holly Holm came into the UFC scene after she became the first person to beat Ronda Rousey at UFC 193. She is widely considered one of the best boxers in UFC female history and never backed out of any challenges.

Holly Holm
Holly Holm (Image Courtesy: UFC)

After she lost her bantamweight title, she continued to fight in the UFC for many more years and also moved up the division for new opportunities. She is currently active in the UFC even after entering her 40s.

4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk

Joanna Jedrzejczyk is why UFC fans became interested in the women’s strawweight division. During her reign as the champion, she dominated all her opponents and cleared out the whole division. She was close to having the most title defenses as a female fighter at one time.

ADVERTISEMENT
Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Joanna Jedrzejczyk (Image Courtesy: UFC)

The Polish fighter has given the UFC fans some of the biggest MMA fights, especially her title bout with Zhang Weili. She retired as one of the most entertaining female fighters and a future Hall of Famer.

3. Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey is an Olympic gold medalist in Judo, and she started her MMA career in 2011. Rousey was the former Strikeforce bantamweight champion. She was the first female fighter to be added to the UFC roster. Rousey was awarded the UFC women’s bantamweight championship in December 2012 in the UFC on Fox: Diaz vs Henderson pre-event press conference. After that, she defended her title for the first time against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157.

Ronda Rousey
Ronda “Rowdy” Rousey (Image Courtesy: UFC)

She finally lost her title against Holly Holm at UFC 193 after holding the title for a number of 1,074 days. This was the first loss in her MMA career, and after that, she faced one more loss against the greatest UFC women’s fighter Amanda Nunes, at UFC 207. Following this, she retired from MMA and joined WWE, where she again became the world champion.

2. Valentina Shevchenko

Valentina Shevchenko is one of the best strikers on the UFC roster. Shevchenko defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk to become the UFC women’s flyweight champion. One must note that Shevchenko fought in the bantamweight division and had a significant disadvantage in terms of size. Yet, she only lost to Amanda Nunes in the bantamweight division.

ADVERTISEMENT
Valentina Shevchenko
Valentina “The Bullet” Shevchenko (Image Courtesy: UFC)

Valentina Shevchenko had seven title defenses since she moved to the flyweight division. It is also the most title defense in the women’s MMA in a single title reign. Shevchenko is one of the most ruthless champions in UFC history, dominating most opponents presented to her.

1. Amanda Nunes

Amanda Nunes is one of the biggest names in women’s MMA around the world. She is a two-division UFC women’s champion, the number one pound-for-pound female UFC fighter.

Amanda Nunes
Amanda “Lioness” Nunes (Image Courtesy: UFC)

Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Cris Cyborg, Valentina Shevchenko, Holly Holm, and Germaine De Randamie are the biggest names Nunes has defeated in her career. She is the only female fighter in UFC history to hold two different titles simultaneously. She retired as the bantamweight champion in 2023.

In case you missed it:

ADVERTISEMENT