With the growing popularity of women’s MMA, it is important to recognize these women with a rankings system of their own. Between the UFC’s inclusion of weight classes from strawweight up to featherweight, Bellator’s increasing attention to the women’s side of the sport, and the all-female promotion Invicta FC, more and more women are being exposed to casual and hardcore fans alike.
Every month, Combat Press compiles the staff’s individual rankings from featherweight to atomweight to create the Combat Press Women’s MMA Rankings.
Note: the numbers in parentheses represent the fighter’s ranking from the previous month.
- Amanda Nunes (1)
- Cris “Cyborg” Justino (2)
- Kayla Harrison (3)
- Julia Budd (4)
- Cat Zingano (5)
- Macy Chiasson (6)
- Arlene Blencowe (7)
- Norma Dumont (8)
- Pam Sorenson (9)
- Sarah Kaufman (10)
No top-10 fighters competed in the month of October. Looking into November, Kayla Harrison will fight Larissa Pacheco again in the PFL season finale. Also, on that same card, Julia Budd will welcome Aspen Ladd to the PFL.
- Amanda Nunes (1)
- Julianna Pena (2)
- Ketlen Vieira (3)
- Holly Holm (4)
- Raquel Pennington (5)
- Irene Aldana (6)
- Aspen Ladd (7)
- Yana Kunitskaya (8)
- Miesha Tate (9)
- Pannie Kianzad (10)
No top-10 fighters competed in the month of October. Looking into November, the aforementioned Ladd moves up to 145 pounds to compete in the PFL.
- Valentina Shevchenko (1)
- Liz Carmouche (2)
- Manon Fiorot (5)
- Alexa Grasso (6)
- Katlyn Chookagian (3)
- Juliana Velasquez (4)
- Jennifer Maia (7)
- Taila Santos (10)
- Lauren Murphy (8)
- Viviane Araujo (9)
Two fighters made major moves in October to move up the rankings. Manon Fiorot scored a win over Katlyn Chookagian to move into the top-three. Also, Alexa Grasso defeated Viviane Araujo to move up to the fourth spot. Looking into November, Jennifer Maia will fight Maryna Moroz.
- Carla Esparza (1)
- Rose Namajunas (2)
- Weili Zhang (3)
- Joanna Jedrzejczyk (4)
- Jessica Andrade (5)
- Marina Rodriguez (6)
- Xiaonan Yan (7)
- Amanda Lemos (8)
- Michelle Waterson (9)
- Mackenzie Dern (10)
Xiaonan Yan scored a big win in October, defeating Mackenzie Dern. Looking into November, top ranked Carla Esparza defends her UFC title against Weili Zhang. Also, Marina Rodriguez takes on Amanda Lemos in a Fight Night main event.
- Jillian DeCoursey (7)
- Jessica Delboni (1)
- Seika Izawa (2)
- Alesha Zappitella (3)
- Ashley Cummins (4)
- Si Woo Park (5)
- Ayaka Hamasaki (6)
- Lindsey vanZandt (8)
- Saori Oshima (9)
- Rena Kubota (10)
There is a new top dog in the atomweight rankings, as Jillian DeCoursey defeated Jessica Delboni to secure the Invicta Atomweight Championship. As of right now, no top-10 fighters are scheduled to fight in November.