Top 5 UFC female fighters
The UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship and is an international fighting organization that was founded in 1993. The company is headquartered in Las Vegas, USA. The first tournament in this sport was held in 1993 in Denver. Then the rating of the tournament turned out to be unexpectedly high, so it was decided to make the competition regular. Today, UFC is popular entertainment, which has more and more fans every year. Both men and women participate in the competition. In this review, we will talk only about women in UFC – we will tell you about the 5 most popular female athletes in this sport. More information about UFC history, female UFC fighters, especially most known women of all time you may find here.
Competitions are always held on an octagonal area called the octagon. The area is fenced in with high vinyl-covered mesh. All participants are required to take part in the competition with a mouthguard for the teeth, special gloves. Athletes fight barefoot and in shorts. For women, chest protection is required, and for men, the groin area is sewn up.
Each fight has 3 rounds for non-title matches and 5 rounds for title matches. Round 1 lasts 5 minutes. There is a rest break between rounds – it lasts 1 minute. To evaluate the results of the participants, a 10-point grading system is used. The one who received the maximum number of points is declared the winner of the battle.
Today the UFC is the main mixfight promotion, and their weight classes are the common standard MMA. There are currently eleven weight classes in the UFC, but only four of them are for women: Featherweight (61-66kg), Bantamweight (56-61kg), Flyweight (52-56), and Strawweight – 48-52 kg.
These categories for women in the UFC sometimes are also called Featherweight, Bantamweight, Lightest, and Minimum.
Rating
Ratings of participants in fights without rules are published regularly on the Internet, but it should be mentioned that many of them are subjective. There are a lot of articles that are related to UFC women’s bantamweight champion, UFC women’s strawweight champion, UFC fight night, and others – so much information about UFC competitions can be found there. In this review, we will look at the 5 most frequently mentioned names of female UFC athletes.
5th place – Joanna Erzejczyk
The fifth line of the rating is occupied by the Polish athlete Joanna Erzejczyk. She is the first Polish female fighter and European UFC champion. According to the results of voting on the information portal Sherdog, this athlete is ranked first among the fighters in the minimum weight. She had her first fight in mixed martial arts in the UFC in 2012 – then the girl won in round 3. Joanna Ecejczyk also won 60 kickboxing fights during her career and won 5 gold medals at the Muay Thai World Championship.
4th place – Jessica Andrade
She is fourth on our list for Brazilian athlete Jessica Andrade. The girl is the former UFC Women’s Welterweight Champion. It should be noted that despite her strength, she has a rather small height – only 156 cm, but at the same time, she repeatedly defeated taller rivals.
The athlete’s career began in 2011 – then she won her first fight against Veidi Borges in Brazil. After 8 years, the athlete received the title of champion in the women’s welterweight division, but in 2019 a defeat in a duel against Zhang Weili took this title from her.
It is interesting to note that Jessica’s first sport was soccer. As a child, she was even invited to play for a local club in São Paulo. After that, the girl also practiced judo and jiu-jitsu.
3rd place – Zhang Weili
The third place in our ranking of MMA athletes is taken by the Chinese athlete Zhang Weili. She is the UFC Women’s Welterweight Champion. Interestingly, the girl lost her first fight – then, in 2013, she fought with Men Bo. However, all subsequent fights ended exclusively in victory for the athlete. Zhang Weili holds the record for the ratio of the number of victories to the number of fights. She won 20 victories in 21 fights, with 10 of them ending in a knockout.
In 2019, the girl won the welterweight title, and the next year she confirmed her champion title by winning a fight against Joanna Jenzhejczyk.
The girl is the only fighter (female fighter) who was the first UFC champion among sportsmen in China and East Asia.
2nd place – Valentina Shevchenko
In second place is the athlete from Kyrgyzstan Valentina Shevchenko. She takes part in MMA fights in the lightest and lightest weight. The girl began her career in 2003 and during this time she had 21 fights, in 19 of which she won. At the same time, she won 6 victories by knockout. In 2020, the athlete defended her UFC women’s flyweight title. in a battle against American athlete Kathleen Chugakian.
At the moment, the girl is an 18-time world champion in various sports: World Martial Arts Games; kickboxing; Muay Thai; MMA.
Interestingly, Valentina spent her first professional fights as a child – at the age of 12. She holds the title of “World’s Best Female Thai Boxer” and is a Master of Sports in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Judo, and Boxing.
1st place – Amanda Nunes
The leader in the ranking among female athletes in MMA is the Brazilian athlete Amanda Nunes.
At the moment, she is the only reigning UFC champion in two weight categories at once: featherweight and bantamweight. The girl began her career in this sport in 2008 – then she fought with Anna Maria of India and lost to her.
After that, Amanda Nunes fought 22 more mixed martial arts fights. At the same time, 19 of them ended in victory for the athlete, and she achieved 13 victories by knockout. Since 2015, the girl has not had a single defeat. In 2016, she confirmed her UFC women’s bantamweight title against Rhonda Rosie.
The athlete is the owner of a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Conclusion
Recall that the rating of the best UFC female athletes is regularly updated. Also every year there are more and more information and updated rules about UFC fight night, UFC hall, UFC women’s strawweight history, and much more. When forming the UFC women’s strawweight rankings and UFC women’s bantamweight rankings, the opinion of specially accredited journalists who follow the UFC fights is taken into account. With the help of their voting, a rating of the best athletes in each weight category is compiled, after which a list of the best is formed, regardless of weight. It is important to note that only active UFC fighters can make the list of the best athletes. Thus, the media has its influence on the position of each ultimate fighter in the absolute ranking.
