Joanna
Jedrzejczyk was basically perfect once again at
UFC 211, shutting out hyped challenger and former bantamweight
Jessica
Andrade over 25 minutes. Since she is already the top woman in
the sport right now -- maybe even the top woman
ever in the
sport -- “Joanna Champion” cannot climb beyond our No. 1 ranking.
Here are some other numbers instead.
With her eighth UFC win, Jedrzejczyk is now the winningest woman in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history. Jedrzejczyk has outlanded
her last six opponents 971-328 in terms of significant strikes. Her
75 landed leg kicks on Andrade are a single-fight UFC record, while
the 225 significant strikes she landed in total are a UFC
championship fight record, breaking the previous mark of 220 she
set against
Valerie
Letourneau.
In our next big women's pound-for-pound clash, fifth-ranked
Claudia
Gadelha takes on No. 6
Karolina
Kowalkiewicz. Jedrzejczyk has already beaten both women three
times in total, four times if you consider her amateur win over her
Polish countrywoman Kowalkiewicz.
Another number to think about: If Jedrzejczyk continues to dominate
at 115 pounds like this, how many more defenses will she have
before she moves onto the UFC's new women's flyweight division?
Prior to UFC 211, Jedrzejczyk already had four UFC women's
strawweight title defenses under her belt, had just beaten our
pound-for-pound No. 6 Karolina Kowalkiewicz and owned a pair of
wins over fifth-ranked entrant Claudia Gadelha. Though strawweight
may be the strongest women's weight class and full of up-and-coming
talent, Jessica Andrade -- a former bantamweight with massive
punching power and fight-ending submission skills -- looked to be
the last great hope to seriously test Jedrzejczyk. Instead of
proving any serious test, Andrade was just more cannon fodder for
the brilliant “Joanna Champion,” who won every single round and
landed 225 significant strikes, breaking her own UFC title fight
record of 220, set in her win over Valerie Letourneau. The
29-year-old Pole is just coming into her prime, getting more media
attention than ever and has largely cleaned out a great division,
though potential challengers like
Rose
Namajunas still remain. Furthermore, if Jedrzejczyk continues
to reign over 115 pounds with ease, the UFC's decision to open up
its women's flyweight division in the immediate future could give
her a new frontier to conquer, one that could lead her to becoming
unquestionably the greatest women's MMA fighter, if she has not
earned the right to call herself that already.
Nunes is working on crafting a legacy. “The Lioness” is now 7-1
with six stoppages in her UFC tenure and has been increasingly and
brutally dominant over her last five bouts, thrashing
Shayna
Baszler,
Sara McMann,
Miesha
Tate and
Ronda
Rousey. The other woman she defeated in that run,
Valentina
Shevchenko, was merely beaten rather than completely bashed.
However, Shevchenko bounced back soundly with a pair of outstanding
wins over former UFC women's bantamweight champion
Holly Holm
and another pound-for-pound entrant: Julianna Pena. Nunes will make
the second defense of her UFC crown against Shevchenko at
UFC
213 on July 8. With Shevchenko having further established
herself as one of the best fighters in the world, a second win over
“Bullet” would be even richer and more outstanding than Nunes'
first. Beyond that, a second win over Shevchenko, who appears to
the be the most stylistically intriguing fight for Nunes right now,
would put the 28-year-old Brazilian in position to reign for some
time at 135 pounds, given the lack of new, immediate
contenders.
Things have been looking up for “Cyborg.” She has not lost in
nearly 12 years and has blistered absolutely everybody she has
fought since losing her pro debut. However, as a legitimate
145-pounder, it has been difficult for the Brazilian to find
steady, worthwhile opposition. When she was flagged by the U.S.
Anti-Doping Agency for a potential drug violation in December, it
looked like her career might be put on freeze, yet two months
later, she had been granted a retroactive therapeutic use exemption
and faced no punishment. Plus, the UFC had opened its 145-pound
doors to women and put a title in play. Naturally, Justino figured
to be the perfect fit for newly minted champion
Germaine
de Randamie's first defense, but the Dutch fighter has claimed
her responsibilities as a police officer in the Netherlands are
presently the top priority on her schedule. The 31-year-old
Justino, sensing that her call-outs of de Randamie may be a dead
end, has changed her tactics and now lobbies for a fight with
Invicta Fighting Championships featherweight champion
Megan
Anderson at
UFC 214 on
July 29 in Anaheim, California. UFC title belt aside, a bout with
Anderson is of more legitimate value to Justino, given that
Anderson is a legitimate 145-pounder with more than a single fight
in the division. More than that, Anderson's size and nasty striking
at least pose an interesting stylistic clash with “Cyborg,” even if
the Australian is still very young in her career. One way or
another, it looks like quality fights are on the way for Justino
and we may even get them with some consistency.
Shevchenko has been one of MMA's most pleasant surprises over the
last 18 months. It was just December 2015 when she debuted on short
notice against former Strikeforce champion
Sarah
Kaufman and earned a split decision win. “Bullet” has built a
3-1 Octagon record since, including a sound domination of former
UFC women's bantamweight champ Holly Holm and a super-slick
second-round armbar of our No. 9 entrant, Julianna Pena, in
January. The lone loss for the Kyrgyzstani fighter was her March
2016 setback to Nunes. Now, Shevchenko has another date with Nunes
lined up. If Shevchenko can avenge her loss to “The Lioness” and
take the UFC women's bantamweight title at UFC 213 on July 8, she
will join Joann Jedrzejczyk and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos as one of
the “Big Three” in WMMA. Even if the 29-year-old Shevchenko is
unsuccessful in her championship rematch with Nunes, given her
size, there is always the possibility she could be a part of the
UFC's embryonic 125-pound women's division, as well.
Strawweight is the best division in women's MMA, the sort of weight
class where even if you are not No. 1 you can still have an
outstanding hit list. Such is the case with Gadelha. From
Kalindra
Faria, Valerie Letourneau and
Herica
Tiburcio to
Ayaka
Hamasaki and
Jessica
Aguilar, “Claudinha” has put away a great cross section of
competition yet is haunted by her pair of losses to UFC champion
Jedrzejczyk, who has bested Gadelha twice in the last 29 months. As
a result, Gadelha appears to be locked into a situation similar to
Joseph
Benavidez's quest for a third crack at flyweight king
Demetrious
Johnson. There is no way to know how many wins it will take for
Gadelha to get another shot at the title. In the meantime, Gadelha
is still getting an assignment with major pound-for-pound
ramifications, as she will meet another woman who has lost twice to
Jedrzejczyk -- albeit once as an amateur -- in Karolina
Kowalkiewicz at
UFC
212 on June 3. Even better than just getting a showdown with
our sixth-ranked woman on this list, Gadelha gets to do it in front
of a partisan Brazilian crowd in Rio de Janeiro.
After winning her first 10 pro bouts and picking up victories over
the likes of
Mizuki
Inoue, Kalindra Faria,
Randa
Markos and Rose Namajunas in a span of less than two years,
Kowalkiewicz earned a shot against the woman who previously beat
her as an amateur back in 2012: Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Unfortunately,
Kowalkiewicz soundly lost four rounds to “Joanna Champion” at UFC
205 in November at Madison Square Garden. Then again, if you have
to lose, at least make sure it comes against the top woman in the
sport. The 31-year-old Pole's well-rounded style makes her a decent
favorite against almost anyone else at 115 pounds, the premier
women's weight class. With that said, Kowalkiewicz figures to be an
underdog the next time she steps into the cage, but if she can pull
off a win, she will be climbing this list in a hurry. “The Polish
Princess” is headed to Rio de Janeiro on June 3 for UFC 212, where
she will meet the No. 5 entrant on this list, Claudia Gadelha.
By virtue of her wins over long-established veterans
Roxanne
Modafferi and
Vanessa
Porto, Maia is the top flyweight woman in the world. The
125-pound division, however, has changed a lot since Maia topped
Porto for the interim Invicta title 14 months ago and even more
since she defended the undisputed championship against Modafferi
eight months ago. In that short window,
Bellator
MMA has doubled down on its women's flyweight division and
snapped up more talent, while the UFC officially announced it was
opening its own women's 125-pound class. Given Maia's stature in
the division and her classic Curitiba-style striking aggression,
she is going to be signed by one promotion or the other at some
point. If she can reaffirm her dominance over the division once
more inside the Invicta cage, she could be in a much better
position to negotiate. Invicta 23 on May 20 emphasizes the
125-pound contender pool, with Porto facing undefeated Polish
prospect
Agnieszka
Niedzwiedz in the main event, Modafferi meeting gritty
Sarah
D'Alelio and fast-rising upstart
Andrea Lee
facing
Liz
Tracy. Maia putting at least one more successful Invicta title
defense under her belt against one of those women would leave no
doubt about the top flyweight woman in the game before she is
courted by MMA's two major promotions.
Before dropping to 105 pounds almost three years ago, Hamasaki had
a distinguished career as a strawweight, submitting an MMA legend
in
Yuka
Tsuji, topping
Emi Fujino
and taking a pair of wins over
Seo Hee Ham.
In fact, the only woman to beat Hamasaki at 115 pounds was a fellow
pound-for-pound entrant, the much larger Claudia Gadelha. That was
until Hamasaki moved back up to starawweight to face former Invicta
champion
Livia
Renata Souza at Invicta 22 on March 25 and got absolutely
torched in less than two minutes. Even with the resounding defeat
to Souza, Hamasaki remains incredibly accomplished in two weight
classes and is still the top atomweight woman in the world.
Presumably, the crushing defeat to Souza will do what the Gadelha
defeat did and send Hamasaki back to 105 pounds to defend her
Invicta title in the rapidly improving weight class over which she
reigns. There, she is 5-0 with wins over Herica Tiburcio,
Jinh Yu
Frey,
Amber
Brown,
Mei
Yamaguchi and
Naho
Sugiyama.
In her biggest fight to date against Valentina Shevchenko, Pena had
moments of success and nearly armbarred “Bullett” at the end of the
first round at UFC on Fox 23. However, she wound up submitted by an
armbar herself late in Round 2, dashing her hopes of the UFC title
shot she has been so vocal about wanting. Nonetheless, Pena has a
host of lopsided, dominant wins in the division; she is one of its
most dynamic fighters; and she is still just 27 years old. More
importantly, there is not exactly a wealth of hot contenders at 135
pounds, so it seems feasible that “The Venezuelan Vixen” could end
up with some top-10 wins in short order and be right back on the
doorstep of a UFC title shot. Also, with the UFC opening up its
women's flyweight division, Pena has already discussed potentially
dropping down to 125 pounds, where she could perhaps be an instant
power player in the developing weight class.
Since her early career losses to two women -- Amanda Nunes and
Ronda Rousey -- who would go on to be featured prominently on this
list and win UFC bantamweight titles, Budd has quietly but steadily
gone about disposing of a wide swath of the top 145-pound women in
the world, including
Charmaine
Tweet,
Gabrielle
Holloway and
Arlene
Blencowe in the last three years and change. At Bellator 174 on
March 3, she pounded out Dutch pioneer
Marloes
Coenen in the fourth round, sending her into retirement and
becoming the first-ever Bellator MMA women's featherweight champion
in the process. While the fairly thin women's 145-pound division is
presently spread over the UFC, Bellator MMA and Invicta, the upside
for the 33-year-old Canadian is that Bellator has already shown and
acted on a desire to snap up talent to populate its women's
flyweight and featherweight divisions, even if Budd is unlikely to
catch a fight against divisional queen Cristiane Justino anytime
soon.
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