The 10 Best Female MMA Fighters of All-Time
The 10 Greatest Female MMA Fighters Ever!
From not being allowed to compete in the UFC to headlining stacked cards – WMMA has rapidly evolved in the past decade.
WMMA legend Miesha Tate
Due to these changes, many of the best Women’s MMA fighters come from the last decade or so - with more incredible female MMA prospects rising to prominence in the next few years, too.
Well, progress is progress, no matter how slow.
In this article, we discuss the 10 greatest female MMA fighters of all-time!
1. Amanda Nunes
In just a span of six years, Amanda Nunes has established herself as the best female MMA fighter of all-time. She is considered one of the most complete fighters ever.
As a result, the “Lioness” has pretty much beaten everyone on this list that was in her division, except Cat Zingano.
The Brazilian superstar became the woman to rule two divisions simultaneously with her UFC bantamweight and featherweight title wins.
She has been ranked as the P4P best in WMMA for many years now.
Her fight with Ronda Rousey headlined UFC 207 and sold over 1 million PPV buys. Nunes ruined Rousey’s comeback to the sport by finishing her in about a minute.
With this, she became the undisputed queen of modern MMA.
2. Ronda Rousey
You just can’t have a list of the top female MMA fighters without including Ronda Rousey.
She broke every single glass ceiling out there for Women’s MMA.
There are many reasons why she’s the first-ever woman to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
An Olympic bronze medallist in her amateur career, she won every divisional title in front of her and sold out arenas everywhere when she went pro.
The “Rowdy” one bulldozed all those in her path to dominate the bantamweight divisions in Strikeforce and the UFC.
Her rivalry with Miesha Tate is one of the most exciting rivalries in MMA history. This rivalry was competitive, and it also brought lots of new eyes to the sport.
Rousey became one of the first fighters to gain popularity with mainstream audiences – crossing over into Hollywood and the WWE.
3. Cris Cyborg
Cris Cyborg is easily the scariest female fighter of all-time.
She’s built like a tank and is a true knockout artist with so much power in her hands.
On top of that, Cyborg also has grappling credentials, in case the fight goes to the ground.
With the help of all of these tools, Cyborg has won championships in every single promotion that she’s fought in.
She’s the only person in MMA history to win titles in all four major promotions. She is also an established BJJ competitor and she has won gold at the IBFF.
With a gleaming record of 26-2, Cyborg has also beaten pretty much every single big name in WMMA.
4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Joanna Jedrzejczyk can be credited with putting the strawweight division on the map.
She established herself as the best in the division, clearing it out from top to bottom.
There was a time when she was on track to equal the most women's title defences, with the most wins in strawweight history, and she was considered unbeatable and in contention for the overall WMMA GOAT.
Jedrzejczyk’s first matchup with Zhang Weili is considered the best women's UFC fight ever.
Both the competitors put everything they had into it and they rearranged each other’s faces.
Not only was Jedrzejczyk great in the cage, but her mind games mentally exhausted her opponents while also entertaining the fans.
Her TUF coaching endeavour alongside Claudia Gadelha led to some of the most memorable moments in the show’s history.
The Polish icon retired a couple of months ago and UFC president Dana White declared her a future Hall of Famer.
5. Valentina Shevchenko
Valentina Shevchenko is arguably the greatest striker in WMMA history.
This is probably because the Kyrgyz superstar is a kickboxing legend before she is an MMA fighter.
After amassing an insane record of 55-1 in the sport, the “Bullet” began focusing on MMA full time.
Naturally, she outskilled and outstruck everyone in her path, becoming the first ever UFC flyweight champion.
Despite fighting for two decades now, Shevchenko has still got it. She has been the kingpin of the 125-pound division for many years now.
6. Rose Namajunas
There was a time when many people thought that Joanna Jedrzejczyk was going to retire undefeated with the strawweight belt around her waist.
That was until Rose Namajunas came into the picture, as a massive underdog of course.
“Thug” Rose survived all of Jedrzejczyk’s trash talk and delivered a beautiful first-round TKO finish.
She then proved how good she was by lasting all five rounds with her and beating her again, this time on points.
She is also the only fighter to defeat the current 115-pound champ Zhang Weili in the UFC, twice.
At the same time, Namajunas is also a very inspiring personality outside the cage.
She was born to two Lithuanian refugees and had a rough upbringing. She has also always used her platform to shed light upon mental health issues.
7. Holly Holm
Holly Holm shocked the world when she became the first person in history to defeat Ronda Rousey in MMA.
However, OG fight fans had always known how good she was, as she’s also one of the greatest female boxers ever.
The “Preacher’s Daughter” joined MMA when she was done with the squared circle. She’d won world championships in the welterweight and light-welterweight divisions.
With her win over Rousey, she quickly captured UFC gold while also doing the unthinkable.
Holm is a true warrior, as she never shies away from a fight, even if it may cause a dent in her record.
8. Miesha Tate
Miesha “Cupcake” Tate is another trailblazer in WMMA. She rose to prominence around the same time as her arch-nemesis, Ronda Rousey.
The former Strikeforce bantamweight champion was known for her wrestling and grappling skills, but she got the occasional knockout as well.
While Tate was never able to one-up Rousey, she did what her rival couldn’t – defeat Holly Holm to win the UFC bantamweight championship.
She has defeated many other big names during her time, too.
Tate has also achieved mainstream success, having competed in and won the latest edition of Celebrity Big Brother.
9. Megumi Fujii
This Japanese icon also fought hard for WMMA to become what it is today.
Fujii built up an impressive 22-fight win streak, staying undefeated for the majority of her career.
She won black belts in judo and jiu-jitsu, and she was known for her amazing work ethic.
Fujii has competed in many promotions, including Bellator and she was the first female fighter to fight in the legendary Saitama Super Arena.
10. Cat Zingano
“Alpha” Cat Zingano is one of the most underrated top female MMA fighters ever.
She’s won over some of the best fighters ever, including Amanda Nunes.
She beat Nunes while the latter was beginning her UFC tenure.
While she’s an elite fighter, Zingano’s career has taken a few hits due to injury and her husband’s suicide. However, she continued to fight and she now competes in Bellator.
As soon as she switched companies, she got back in the win column and she’s now on a multi-fight wining streak.
Honourable Mention: Carla Esparza
Carla Esparza is truly one of the best female MMA fighters of all-time.
The only reason she’s so underrated is because of her fighting style, which isn’t action-packed like the others on this list.
The “Cookie Monster” is a former two-time UFC strawweight champion. Before that, she secured UFC contract via her TUF 20 win.
She’s also beaten Rose Namajunas twice, something which Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Zhang Weili haven’t even done once.
Other fighters who deserve honourable mentions include Zhang Weili, Jessica Andrade, Sarah Kaufman and Marloes Coenen.
Who would you add to our list of the best female MMA fighters ever? Tell us in the comments!
