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)
- Larissa Pacheco (4)
- Cat Zingano (5)
- Sara McMann (6)
- Olena Kolesnyk (7)
- Aspen Ladd (8)
- Julia Budd (9)
- Arlene Blencowe (10)
No top-10 fighters competed in the month of May. Looking into June, No. 4 Larissa Pacheco will square off with knockout artist Amber Leibrock under the PFL banner. On that same card, No. 8 Aspen Ladd will fight Karolina Sobek and No. 9 Julia Budd squares off with Martina Jindrova.
- Amanda Nunes (1)
- Julianna Pena (2)
- Holly Holm (3)
- Raquel Pennington (4)
- Ketlen Vieira (5)
- Irene Aldana (6)
- Miesha Tate (7)
- Yana Santos (8)
- Pannie Kianzad (9)
- Macy Chiasson (10)
No top-10 fighters competed in the month of May. June will see the best women’s bantamweight in the world, Amanda Nunes, defend her UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship against Irene Aldana in the headliner of UFC 289.
- Alexa Grasso (1)
- Valentina Shevchenko (2)
- Liz Carmouche (3)
- Tatiana Suarez (4)
- Erin Blanchfield (5)
- Manon Fiorot (6)
- Katlyn Chookagian (7)
- Juliana Velasquez (8)
- Jessica Andrade (9)
- Jennifer Maia (10)
No top-10 fighters competed in the month of May. As of now, no top-10 fighters are scheduled to compete in June.
- Weili Zhang (1)
- Carla Esparza (2)
- Rose Namajunas (3)
- Joanna Jedrzejczyk (4)
- Amanda Lemos (5)
- Xiaonan Yan (7)
- Virna Jandiroba (NR)
- Marina Rodriguez (6)
- Mackenzie Dern (8)
- Tecia Torres (9)
Dropped out of the rankings: Luana Pinheiro (10)
The month of May saw some shakeups in the strawweight division. Xiaonan Yan moved up the rankings with her biggest to date, besting former UFC champion Jessica Andrade. Virna Jandiroba moved into the rankings in a big way, as she bested Marina Rodriguez to push Luana Pinheiro out of the top 10. Lastly, Mackenzie Dern bested Angela Hill in a great fight to stay solid in her position. As of now, no top-10 fighters are scheduled to compete in June.
- Seika Izawa (3)
- Rayanne dos Santos (NR)
- Jillian DeCoursey (1)
- Jessica Delboni (2)
- Alesha Zappitella (4)
- Si Woo Park (5)
- Ashley Cummins (6)
- Ayaka Hamasaki (7)
- Lindsey vanZandt (8)
- Rena Kubota (10)
Dropped out of the rankings: Saori Oshima (9)
A major shake up took place in the month of May, as Rayanne dos Santos upended Jillian DeCoursey to become the Invicta Atomweight Champion, entering the rankings at the No. 2 spot. In addition to that, the new No. 1 atomweight Seika Izawa continued her undefeated ways in beating Suwanan Boonsorn over in Japan. Lastly, Jessica Delboni got back in the win column by defeating UFC veteran Danielle Taylor. As of now, no top-10 fighters are scheduled to compete in June.