Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021
As the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is blessed with a chunk of impressively talented female MMA fighters, who have left the whole world quite dumbfounded with their jaw-dropping fights, why not take a look at the Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021.
Although Mixed Martial Arts is typically deemed to be a too violent sport to be played by women, a raft of deadly female fighters are currently competing in the sport who have proved to be as good as their male counterparts in all sense of the words.
Yet, the emergence of their competitions was by far later than men. Precisely as saying, it was in 1997 that females began to fight officially in the United States.
Ever since then, many women have etched their names in the history books with their outstanding performances in the sport, either by revolutionizing female fights or just by making it more popular.
But, as a matter of fact, Female MMA, was not taken that much seriously until the time that the UFC began purchasing them.
Yet, UFC female fights don’t have a long history because they started widely in 2013 with the encounter between Rousey and Carmouche at UFC 157.
Be that as it may, even with such a short period of time, UFC has produced some of the best fighters the world has ever seen, while as time goes by, the quality of their fighters is improving dramatically as it attracts even more new talents. So what better than to get to know a bit more about the Top 10 Active Female UFC Fighters.
Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021
Here we would feature a list of The Current Best Pound-for-Pound Female MMA Fighters who compete in the UFC.
Aspen Ladd
Nationality
: American
Division
: Flyweight, Bantamweight
Years Active
: 2015–present
Career Record
: 9 Wins- 1 Loss
As an American professional MMA fighter, she competes in the Bantamweight category of the UFC, while she became a professional fighter in 2015 when she started her MMA career in Invicta FC.
What has landed her a spot on our list of the
Top 10 Best Female UFC Fighters 2021
, is her being ranked as the #10 fighter in UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings as of June 14, 2021. In the meantime, she grabbed the third position in the UFC women's bantamweight rankings as of February 16, 2021.
In her debut UFC fight against Lina Länsberg which took place on October 22, 2017, at UFC Fight Night 118, she succeeded to earn victory via TKO in the second round, in quite a fashion way and powerful war cry until the judge brought the fight into a halt.
In her MMA career, she won one Performance of the Night against Tonya Evinger and one Fight of the Night against Sijara Eubanks.
Carla Esparza
Nickname
: Cookie Monster
Nationality
: American
Division
: Strawweight
Years Active
: 2010–present
MMA Career
: 18 Wins- 6 Losses
As an American professional MMA fighter, she competes in the Strawweight category of the UFC, while she was honoured to be the first UFC Strawweight Champion as well as the first Invicta FC Strawweight Champion.
Being included among the
Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021
, her grappling skill is specifically noticeable. While she is the third UFC fighter in the UFC women's strawweight rankings as of May 24, 2021, she grabbed the spot #9 in the UFC women's pound for pound rankings as well.
She joined UFC on December 11, 2013, so as to achieve the first-ever UFC Strawweight Championship. Among her honours, one can suggest to her winning one Fight of the Night Award against Alexa Grasso and two Performance of the Night Awards against Rose Namajunas and Yan Xiaonan.
Holly Holm
Nickname
: The Preacher's Daughter
Nationality
: American
Division
: Bantamweight, Featherweight
Years Active
: 2011–present
Record Career
: 14 Wins- 5 Losses
While she competes in the bantamweight category of UFC, she earned the second spot in the UFC women's bantamweight rankings as of October 19, 2020, and is ranked as the #8 fighter in UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings.
As one of the
Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021
, not only she is the former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, but also she is considered to be the first and the only fighter to ever hold a world boxing title and a UFC title.
To be specific, She made history when she grabbed the bantamweight title and gave Ronda Rousey her first-ever defeat in front of record-breaking spectators for a UFC event (56,215 people) in Melbourne.
While the fight is deemed to be one of the biggest upsets in combat sports history, it saw Holm earn Fight of the Night, Performance of the Night, 2015 Upset of the Year as well as the 2015 Knockout of the Year honours.
Germaine de Randamie
Nickname
: The Iron Lady
Nationality
: Dutch
Division
: Bantamweight, Featherweight
Years Active
: 2008–present
Career Record
: 10 Wins- 4 Losses
As a Dutch MMA fighter, she currently competes in the bantamweight category of the UFC as she was honoured to be the first UFC Women's Featherweight Champion.
She is widely regarded as one of The Current Best Pound-for-Pound Female MMA Fighters, due to her being the #1 in the UFC women's bantamweight rankings as well as the #7 fighter in the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings.
But before joining the UFC, she competed in the Strikeforce featherweight category as her debut UFC fight against Julie Kedzie occurred at UFC on Fox 8 on July 27, 2013, while she came out ahead via split decision.
She is also honoured to grab two Performance of the Night awards against Anna Ellmose and Julianna Peña while she has the record of the fastest knockout in UFC Women's Bantamweight division (16 seconds), tied with Ronda Rousey.
Jessica Andrade
Nickname
: Bate Estaca
Nationality
: Brazilian
Division
: Bantamweight (135 lbs) (2011–2015), Strawweight (115 lbs) (2016–2020), Flyweight (125 lbs) (2020–present)
Years Active:
2011–present
Record Career
: 21 Wins- 9 Losses
As a Brazilian professional MMA fighter, she competes in the flyweight category of the UFC, while she was also the UFC Women's Strawweight Champion, being regarded as one of the
Top 10 Active Female UFC Fighters
.
As she initially fought in the Bantamweight class, she has become the only woman in UFC history to ever win a fight in three different weight categories, holding the record of the most fights in the UFC women's history (19) as well.
Earning the first spot in the UFC women's flyweight rankings as of October 19, 2020, she is even ranked as the #6 fighter In the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings.
Moreover, she has been granted four Performance of the Night awards against Joanne Calderwood, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Rose Namajunas and Katlyn Chookagian and four Fight of the Night awards against Angela Hill, Cláudia Gadelha and two times against Rose Namajunas.
Joanna Jędrzejczyk
Nationality
: Polish
Division
: Strawweight (2014–2018, 2019–present), Flyweight (2012–2014, 2018–present)
Years Active
: 2012–present
Record Career
: 16 Wins- 4 Losses
As a Polish MMA fighter, she currently competes in both the women’s Flyweight and Strawweight categories of the UFC.
While she previously achieved the UFC Women's Strawweight Championship and defended her title five times successfully, she is often considered to be among the
Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021
.
In addition to her earning the second spot in the UFC women's strawweight rankings as of October 19, 2020, she is the #5 fighter in UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings.
Being the record holder of the most title fights in UFC women's categories (10), she became the First Polish-born champion in UFC history as she earned one Performance of the Night award against Carla Esparza and three Fight of the Night awards against Jessica Penne, Cláudia Gadelha and Zhang Weili.
Zhang Weili
Nickname
: Magnum
Nationality
: Chinese
Division
: Strawweight
Years Active
: 2013–present
Career Record
: 21 Wind- 2 Losses
The Chinese MMA fighter, currently competes in the strawweight category of the UFC, while she was formerly the UFC Women's Strawweight World Champion.
Being the first-ever Chinese and East Asian champion in UFC history, she cemented her place among the Top 10 Best Female UFC Fighters 2021, as she earned the first spot in the women's strawweight rankings as well as the fourth position in UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings.
In the fight against Joanna Jędrzejczyk that took place on February 19, 2020, at UFC 248, she gained the palm via split decision, so as to defend her title for the first time.
While the fight became 2020 Fight of the Year, it was widely assumed to be the greatest fight in women's MMA history, you can read the full account of the fight in
The Best Women's Fights in UFC History.
It also saw her earn the Fight of the Night award along with the Performance of the Night as she utterly proved herself qualified to be enlisted among the Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021.
Rose Namajunas
Nickname
: Thug
Nationality
: American
Division
: Strawweight
Years Active
: 2010–present
Career Record
: 10 Wins, 4 Losses
As one of the Top 10 Best Female UFC Fighters 2021, the American professional MMA fighter is the two-time and current UFC Women's Strawweight World Champion.
In case you are interested to know more about the other UFC current Champions, you can take a look at
UFC Current Champions: Who is the most dominant belt holder?While she gained the third position in the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings as of April 26, 2021, she is the first female fighter in UFC history to ever regain a championship title after losing it.
Coming out ahead of the three former UFC Women's Strawweight Champions - Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Jéssica Andrade, and Zhang Weili, she is certainly one of the Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021.
Valentina Shevchenko
Nickname
: Bullet
Nationality
: Kyrgyzstani and Peruvian
Division
: Bantamweight, Flyweight
Years Active
: 2003–present
Record Career
: 21 Wins- 3 Losses
While Bullet was a competent professional Muay Thai fighter, currently she is among the Top 10 Active Female UFC Fighters, being their undisputed Flyweight Champion.
But it is not just as of November 23, 2020, that she is ranked the #2 fighter in UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings since she is the indispensable member of
The Greatest MMA Fighters of All Timeas well.
As she managed to topple three former UFC champions - Holly Holm, Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Jéssica Andrade, it is clear why she has earned one of the top positions on the list of
The Current Best Pound-for-Pound Female MMA Fighters
.
Amanda Nunes
Nickname
: Lioness
Division
: Bantamweight (2011–present), Featherweight (2008–2011, 2018–present)
Years Active:
2008–present (MMA)
Record Career
: 21 wins- 4 losses
As the reigning champion of the women’s Bantamweight and Featherweight category of the UFC, she succeeded to be the first woman to become a two-weight class UFC champion.
Likewise, as she is the first and mere fighter in UFC history to ever defend two titles while actively holding them, it is of little surprise to see her among the greatest women's mixed martial artist of all time.
While she is the #1 fighter in the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings, she would grab the first position in our Top 10 Female UFC Fighters of 2021.
Her holding the records of the most consecutive victories in UFC history amongst women (12), her most victories in UFC title fights amongst women (9) and her most victories in UFC history amongst women (14), speak volumes about her stellar MMA career.
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