Amanda Nunes
The lioness has defiently earned her positioning on this list. Holding the greatest female resume we can possibly think of and setting new records that’ll stay where they are for quite some time.
Amanda first began to train in Karate at age four and persued to add more to her wide ranged arsenal by begining to train Boxing at age sixteen. She would later go on to train brazilian jiu jitsu after being invited to go and train with her sister at their local dojo.
Nunes made her debut in MMA against Ana Maria at Prime MMA Championship 2 on March 8, 2008 where she would go on to lose the bout by armbar submission in round one after defeating Julia Budd in her fight before. This also happened to be her Featherweight debut. Since the defeat she would go on a six fight tear before falling short to Alexis Davis by first-round TKO in her Bantamweight debut.
Following the defeat, Amanda would go 4-2 in her last 6 bouts, picking up a TKO win over Germaine De Randamie in round one.
Nunes finally planted her feet in the UFC organisation, however she is still yet to taste defeat as she has not lost since 2014. Picking up wins over Sarah McMann and Valentina Shevchenko, before submitting Miesha Tate by a rear-naked choke in the first round, where she also become the UFC women’s bantamweight champion with a performance of the night bonus.
The Lioness would then starch returning fighter Ronda Rousey in round one where she defended the bantamweight title and picked up another post-fight bonus. Nunes, would go on to defend her title twice more with a rematch between Valentina Shevchenko and Raquel Pennington before moving up to challenge feared champion by many in Cris Cyborg.
The bantamweight queen didn’t leave any doubts to why she is the rightful pound-for-pound number one women’s fighter in the world, when she knocked out Cris Cyborg in 0.51 seconds of the very first round to become the first ever women’s two divisional champion. Nunes picked up yet another perforamance of the night bonus.
Following this the women’s champ champ would go back down to bantamweight and knock out Holly Holm in the opening round by a vicious head kick picking up another post-fight bonus.
Amanda last fought against Germaine De Randamie at UFC 245 back in December, 2019.
As of January 27, 2020. The Lioness is ranked number one pound-for-pound in the UFC women’s rankings.
Ronda Rousey
After winning the bronze medal while competing in Judo within the Beijing Olympics back in 2008. Ronda was destined for success in women’s MMA when she made the decision to retire from Judo at 21 and began training MMA at 22.
Ronda began training Judo when she was 11 years of age up to 13 years of age with her mother who also happened to be the first american to win a world Judo championship in 1984, Ronda would have to stop training with her mother after accidentally breaking her wrist. When she turned 17 she had become the youngest Judoka to qualify for the 2004 Olympics. Rousey would go on to lose in her first match-up in the 63kg bracket where she fell to silver medalist Claudia Heill.
Although losing, Ronda Rousey would go on to win a gold medal at the world junior judo championships the same year in Budapest.
Before making her professional debut Ronda dominated the amateur scene for less then a year tallying up 3 straight wins all by submission in the first round. Each win resulted within the first minute of each fight.
Early in Rousey’s career she domianted her first 6 opponents as she finished all of them by submission in the first round.
Her first bout was against Ediane Gomes at KOTC: Turning Point she won the bout by armbar in 0.25 seconds of the first round, she would then go on to defeat Charmaine Tweet at HKFC: School of hard knocks 12 where she happened to domiante again winning the contest by armbar in 0.51 seconds of the first round.
With the dominant victories she produced in her first two bouts as a professional MMA fighter. Rousey was signed to Strikeforce where she matched up against Sarah D’Alelio in the main card she got her hand raised by another submission vitory coming by an armbar in the first 0.25 seconds of the opening bell.
Ronda’s popularity would begin to raise uncontrollably leaving the fans and match makers known for the big time. “Rowdy” Ronda would face tough challenges in her next two bouts competing against Julia Budd and Miesha Tate.
In the Budd bout she had cruised to another victory lasting only 0.39 seconds of the first round with another armbar finish, while in her next bout against the 12-2 promising Miesha Tate she had been pushed to the furthest she has throughout her career.
This didn’t stop Ronda as she got her arm raised after a second round submission finish and being awarded the ultimate prize by becoming the women’s strike force bantamweight champion and as well the first women to do so.
She would later be signed by the UFC and be promoted to the women’s UFC bantamweight champion where she would also make history of becoming the first women’s champion in the organisation’s history.
Her first title defence was against Liz Carmouche who was coming off two stoppages herself, Rousey would submit Liz with 11 seconds left on the clock of the very first round. (4.49) Ronda would then defend and rematch Miesha Tate at UFC 168 where it was more competitive between the two. However, Ronda left with the belt still wrapped around her waist for the second consecutive time while setting records and a path for other female fighters to follow. Rousey would submit Miesha in only 0.58 seconds of the third round.
Whilst Ronda’s hype train wasn’t slowing down a notch the UFC was beginning to struggle to find worthy opponent’s for their champion, resulting in the match makers making a fight between Rowdy and Sarah McMann. She happened to be an undefeated dangerous fighter holding a professional MMA record of 7-0. Ronda would go on to make the third successful title defence of her career after putting down McMann with a brutal knee to the body in 1.06 of the first round.
The fan’s finally guessed that Ronda striking had improved once she made a quick turn around and knocked out Alexis Davis in only 0.16 seconds of the first round. Rousey was near unstoppable climbing to a record of 10-0 (4-0, UFC) after her fourth successful tittle defence there really wasn’t many more challengers for her to face.
Her next bout would be against a proven submission wrestler in Cat Zingano which was again no match when she would lose the fight by submission in 0.14 seconds of the first round.
Rousey would go on to make her sixth and final title defence against Bethe Correia at UFC 190 winning the belt as quickly as ever in just 0.34 seconds of the first round. Ronda would later go on and loose her prestigious bantamweight title to Holly Holm at UFC 193.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Currently being ranked as the number five pound-for-pound women’s UFC fighter in the world it’s not hard to see why she has taken the third spot on this last after such a phenomenal run in her career so far.
Joanna also known by some as the “Boogey Women” first began training in Muay Thai when she was just sixteen years old, she later went on to compete in european and also national tournaments.
Winning over 60 fights and competing in the sport of Muay Thai for 10 years. Joanna would decide to transition into MMA. She made her debut back in 2012 where she fought Sylwia Juskiewicz at SFT – MMA Fight Night Diva SPA on May, 19. Joanna picked up a unanimous decision win.
After her win she would shortly go on to make her second appearance in MMA, where she submitted Lily Kazak by rear-naked choke before matching up against the number one ranked Russian women’s MMA fighter in the world Julia Berezikova. Jedrzejczyk would go on to pick up another unaminous decision win.
Joanna would then go on to make two more dominant appearances before being signed to the UFC in July, 2014. Making her debut for the organisation at new found weight division Straw-weight, Joanna would earn herself a decision win over Juliana Lima who happened to miss weight.
She would then go on to fight in a title eliminator bout in late 2014 against Claudia Gadelha. While fans had no doubt who would be getting there hand raised, Joanna would then fight first ever UFC women’s straw-weight champion Carla Esparza, at UFC 185 in 2015. Joanna went on to TKO Carla in the second round, resulting in her picking up her first performance of the night bonus. Jedrzejczyk would become the first women’s UFC female European champion and the first Polish UFC champion.
Joanna would go on and successfully defend her belt 5 times, the first defence come by TKO in the third round against former Invicta atom-weight champion Jessica Penne in 2015 the bout earnt the bonus fight of the night. The straw-weight queen was near unstoppable and she recognised that along with her fan’s within the MMA community.
Her next title defence would come against Valérie Letourneau at UFC 193 in 2015, where again she would make another dominant title defence winning by decision. Joanna would then be put to the test in a rematch against Claudia Gadelha in 2016, who happened to beat Jessica Aguilar in a title eliminator bout. Claudia come out strong in the opening rounds but that didn’t stop Joanna from progressing as the fight went on. Joanna would dominate Claudia in the finals rounds of the fight to earn another decision win. The bout earned the fighters a fight of the night bonus.
In her second defence of 2016 Joanna come across former amateur opponent Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 205 where the queen would yet again dominate. All judges scored the fight 49-46 in favour of the champion. While Joanna was dominating and setting records for her division left and right, she would next fight against Jessica Andrade at UFC 211. The challenger who held a professional MMA record of 16-5 and happened to be on a 3 fight win streak would still be no match when she would be dominated for all five rounds.
The title defence against Jessica would be her fifth and final defence before being stopped in the first round by Rose Namajunas at UFC 213, 2017.
Valentina Shevchenko
Coming in at the fourth position on this list is the “Bullet” Valentina Shevchenko she is currently ranked as the third best women’s pound-for-pound fighter on the UFC roster and many consider her to be the best women’s fighter in the world. Shevchenko is a 8x gold medallist in women’s Muay Thai world championships.
Valentina first started training in Taekwondo age 5 under the motivation coming from her sister Antonina and her mother. Shevchenko age 12 then decided to add more to her skill set and began to train in Muay Thai Kickboxing and later free-style Vale Tudo. Her career in kickboxing started in the year 2000, where she has beaten former straw-weight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Lina Lansberg.
Shevchenko later made a switch over to MMA in 2003 and made her debut at Kyrgyz Federation of Kulatuu against Eliza Aidaralieva, where she won by TKO. While stacking up a record of 11-1 Valentina was then set to make her UFC debut in late 2015 on the preliminary card of Dos Anjos vs Cerrone 2. She stepped up to fight Sarah Kaufman on short notice after her original opponent Germaine De Randamie pulled out due to injury. Valentina would go on and win the fight by a split decision.
Her second fight with the UFC come against Amanda Nunes in 2016 at UFC 196 where unfortunately she would fall short of a win and lose the bout by unanimous decision. After the loss Valentina made a quick turn around and fought former women’s UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm. The “Bullet” would dominate the fight and win a decision victory.
With her record extended to 13-2 she would then headline her second straight card facing off against Julianna Pena in January of 2017, where she would go to get her arm raised after a armbar submission win that come in the second round. Valentina picked up her first performance of the night bonus in her UFC career.
In late 2017, Valentina would rematch and again come short to Amanda Nunes in a decision loss that many believe Shevchenko deserved over then newly crowned women’s UFC bantamweight champion. After her second loss to Amanda, Valentina decided to return to flyweight, where she has been nothing short of spectacular so far totalling up 5 wins since making the move. Her flyweight debut would be against Priscila Cachoeira in February 2018, where she come away with a first round submission by rear-naked choke and a performance of the night bonus.
December 2018, Valentina would share the octagon with former opponent Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 231. The fight was for the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title. Valentina would win by a dominant decision over one of the best fighters she’s faced in her career. The win over the former straw-weight queen proved to the fan’s Valentina can’t be stopped at her new weight class.
Valentina would make her first title defence against Jessica Eye at UFC 238, where she would again show why she’s one of the world’s elite strikers after an unbelievable head kick knockout that come in first 0.26 seconds of the second round.
She would soon make an insanely quick turn around after making her first successful title defence. Valentina returned to face Liz Carmouche after only two months out the octagon. Liz happened to be the first one to hand Shevchenko her first loss back in 2010, however the result of the rematch certainly wouldn’t turn out the same way after Valentina dominated all five rounds and cruised to a unanimous decision win.
Valentina Shevchenko’s most recent outing was against Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 247 on February 8, 2020 where she won win by TKO in the third round to successfully make the third consecutive title defence of her reign.
Cris Cyborg
In her younger days Cris wasn’t mainly interested in fighting or even practising for that matter. Before being acknowledged by Rudimar Fedrigo, who happens to be a Chute Boxe Academy trainer, Cris happened to be a national level team handball player.
When we think of Cris Cyborg we think about her striking and insane power in either hand, what many seem to forget is Cris is a high level BJJ practitioner winning 2 gold medals in the 2011 and 2012 IBJJF world jiu-jitsu championships she has a grappling record of 7-1.
Cris Cyborg first turned professional in MMA back in 2005 where she fought and lost her debut against Erica Paes by a knee bar submission in the first round. Since then Cris has only fell short once in the last 15 years against Amanda Nunes.
From her debut loss Cris would go on a six fight win streak in the Storm Samurai and Elite XC organisations before being signed to Strike force in 2009 after dropping out of a scheduled fight against high level submission specialist Marloes Coenen to sign the contract, the two later fought in 2010 and both signed under strike force where Cyborg would stop her by TKO in the third round.
In the two fights leading up to the debut with Strike Force. Cris missed weight in both bouts this made an effect in her debut with Strike Force too when she also missed weight in her promotional debut against Hitomi Akano. Cris had her arm raised when she won by TKO, she would then make a quick turn around and faced off against Gina Carano for the inaugural Strike force Women’s Featherweight Championship.
Cris would go on to make two successful title defences before testing positive for stanozolol in her bout against Hiroko Yamanaka which happened to be an original TKO win for the champion. Cris would go on to sign a multi-fight contract for Invicta FC in 2013 after Strike force fell apart.
The former Striker force champion Cris Cyborg was set to fight Fiona Muxlow after Cris’s original opponent Ediane Gomes pulled out due to injury. The bout was a title eliminator and the winner would determine who would go on to face Marloes Coenen for the inaugural Invicta FC featherweight championship.
Cris would stop Muxlow by TKO in the first round and later TKO Coenen in the fourth round of their title bout. The new champion of the division would go on to make three successful title defences before being signed to the UFC in 2015.
Her debut with the UFC was against Leslie Smith, where she headlined the event at UFC 198 in a catchweight bout of 140lbs, she would stop Smith in her tracks in the first round. Cris would soon fight again in 2016 this time against Lina Lansberg at another catchweight bout of 140lbs.
10 months out from her last bout against Lansberg. Cyborg was set to fight Tonya Evinger for the vacant UFC women’s featherweight championship at UFC 214. Cris would display beautiful striking and win by TKO in the third round.
In her first title defence as champion she fought Holly Holm in 2017 at UFC 219. Cris would win via decision and receive her first fight of the night post fight bonus of her UFC career. The reigning champion would next match up against Yana Kunitskaya who was making her UFC debut after becoming the Invicta FC women’s featherweight champion. Cris would dominate and make the second title defence of her reign by first round TKO stoppage.
On December 29, 2018. Cris Cyborg would lose her prestigious belt to Amanda Nunes at UFC 232 by knock out in 0.51 of the first round. Since losing her title, Cris had one more bout with the UFC defeating Felicia Spencer by unanimous decision at UFC 240 on July 27, 2019.
Since making her last appearance at UFC 240, Cris Cyborg on September 3, 2019 signed a multi-fight contract with Bellator MMA. In her debut at Bellator 238 she fought Julia Budd where she won by fourth round TKO. Cyborg became the Bellator women’s featherweight world champion.
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