Ranking the Top 10 WMMA GOATs

[leto1776]

She’s beaten Zhang, JJ twice and Andrade

Doesn't change that she's inconsistent as hell, and can never keep the momentum going.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

1. Good list. Not sure I've seen someone put this kind of time in, and we've had WMMA long enough to start rankings some of these Do Something Bitches.
2. Holm should not be on the list at all imo. Spectacular win over Rousey, but otherwise she's just good enough to push better fighters.
3. For the top of the list, I see the reasoning for putting Val 2nd, but Rousey was better than remembered and was just huge for WMMA and really MMA in general. Too bad she was so unbearable whether she won or she lost.
4. The difference between the top five and the bottom of the list shows how sharply the talent level in WMMA drops of after the very top fighters.

 

[GGpX]

I think Megami Fuji has to be on any women's all time list. She was the original WMMA goat a decade ago and I'd argue she only has one legitimate loss, and even then, I could be swayed that none of them were legit.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Dude, her resume consists of Leticia Pestova, Sexton, Elaina Maxwell, Kedzie, Tonya Evinger, Kaitlin Young and somebody named Kelly Kobold. Those wins and a loss to Cyborg is her entire career. It’s terrible.
Holm isn’t amazing, but she has the win over Ronda as well as Pennington x 2, Renau, Bethe, Megan, Aldana... Those are Holly’s good wins and she has more of them than Gina had fights.
Gina isn’t even Top 15 in my book.

Kelly Kobold > Megan Anderson

Other than that I agree that Gina wasn't as good a fighter and doesn't have as good a resume as Holm. No offense to Carano, but she was more a pioneer than a finished product.

 

[BFoe]

1. Good list. Not sure I've seen someone put this kind of time in, and we've had WMMA long enough to start rankings some of these Do Something Bitches.
2. Holm should not be on the list at all imo. Spectacular win over Rousey, but otherwise she's just good enough to push better fighters.
3. For the top of the list, I see the reasoning for putting Val 2nd, but Rousey was better than remembered and was just huge for WMMA and really MMA in general. Too bad she was so unbearable whether she won or she lost.
4. The difference between the top five and the bottom of the list shows how sharply the talent level in WMMA drops of after the very top fighters.

Thanks Inga, I appreciate it.
If we were to remove Holm, who would you have enter the Top 10 that isn’t there now?

 

[SherdogFan23]

Dude, her resume consists of Leticia Pestova, Sexton, Elaina Maxwell, Kedzie, Tonya Evinger, Kaitlin Young and somebody named Kelly Kobold. Those wins and a loss to Cyborg is her entire career. It’s terrible.
Holm isn’t amazing, but she has the win over Ronda as well as Pennington x 2, Renau, Bethe, Megan, Aldana... Those are Holly’s good wins and she has more of them than Gina had fights.
Gina isn’t even Top 15 in my book.

Do you know the rank of those fighters she beat? If not, then move on with your list.
Gina lost to a Cyborg who got busted for PED's a couple years later.
Prime Gina would destroy 99.9% of the 135 lb or greater women fighters in their prime including every year from then to now. She would only lose to a few fighters that are also on your list.

This argument is no different than discussion about a prime Brock Lesnar before he got diverticultis. That version of Brock would destroy almost every HW fighter that ever fought. But did he do it? No he didn't but it doesn't change the fact that prime Brock was close to the best just like Gina was close to the best.

 

[BFoe]

Kelly Kobold > Megan Anderson

Other than that I agree that Gina wasn't as good a fighter and doesn't have as good a resume as Holm. No offense to Carano, but she was more a pioneer than a finished product.

No way. Megan’s resume smokes Kobold’s. We agree about Carano though.

 

[blaseblah]

You read that correctly, fellow Sherdoggians—I said WMMA GOATs. I.e., the best female mixed martial artists we’ve seen so far. This should be a topic that sets Sherdog on fire
But I think it’s important to do this, to begin to try and codify who the very best female athletes are that we’ve seen, same as we do in men’s MMA. And in light of the great wins from Val and Rose the other night, I think the topic is timely.

EXPLANATION OF CRITERIA:
When I compile GOAT lists, I do it based on overall resume and accomplishments. I look at categories such as championships won, number of title defenses, number of ranked wins, and the always popular criteria of former/future champions beaten. This is particularly tough to do with WMMA, as not all the big promotions have always had women’s divisions—and ones that did, didn’t always have rankings. So for the purpose of this thread, I will be using the criteria of: Notable Wins, Championships Won, Title Defenses, Former/Future Champions Beaten, as well as Losses.

DISCLAIMERS: I will attempt to rank fighters regardless of PED failures. Additionally, I will be listing championships won in in smaller orgs. We don’t do this with men’s MMA, but I found it necessary as major promotions did not always have women’s divisions. Yes, I know that not all championships are equal. While GOAT lists are always somewhat subjective, this one is more so than usual, due to the fact that WMMA in general is newer in its growth than men’s MMA. In the event that these criteria seemed equivalent for two or more fighters, I then looked at whether these fighters had fought one another, and the outcome. Because of all this, I expect a fair amount of controversy.
Well, that and neckbeards who still can’t handle the fact that it’s 2021 and women compete in all sorts of athletics.
Without further ado, here are my Top 10.

10. JULIA BUDD View attachment 850280
Record: 15-3
Notable wins: 3 (GDR, Arlene Blencowe, Marloes Coenen)
Championships won: 1 (Bellator)
Title defenses: 3
Champs beaten: 3 (GDR, Blencowe x 2, Coenen)
Losses: Amanda Nunes, Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg
Budd is a Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer, who also has a 10-2 kickboxing record. She made her pro MMA debut in 2010, and has fought for Strikeforce, Invicta, and Bellator.

9. HOLLY HOLM View attachment 850283

Record: 14-5
Notable wins: 6 (Pennington x 2, Reneau, Rousey, Correia, Anderson, Aldana)
Championships won: 1 (UFC)
Title defenses: 0
Champs beaten: 2 (Rousey and Anderson)
Losses: Tate, Schevchenko, De Randamie, Cyborg, Nunes
Holly is a boxer (33-2-3) and kickboxer (22-1-7) who made her pro MMA debut in 2011. She has fought for Legacy FC, Bellator, Invicta, the UFC, and others.

8. MIESHA TATE View attachment 850285

Record: 18-7
Notable wins: 5 (Coenen, Carmouche, McMann, Eye, and Holm)
Championships won: 3 (FCF, Strikeforce, UFC)
Title defenses: 1 (FCF title. 0 successful defenses of SF and UFC titles)
Champs beaten: 2 (Coenen and Holm)
Losses: Young, Kaufman, Rousey x 2, Zingano, Nunes, Pennington
Miesha started wrestling in high school, then later trained jiu jitsu. She made her pro debut in 2007, and competed in BodogFight, FCF, Strikeforce, UFC, and others.

7. MARLOES COENEN View attachment 850287

Record: 23-8
Notable wins: 5 (Kondo, Modafferi, Carmouche, Kaufman, Blencowe)
Championships won: 1 (Strikeforce)
Title defenses: 1
Champs beaten: 3 (Modafferi, Blencowe, Kaufman)
Losses: Toughill, Modafferi, Dandois, Cyborg x 2, Tate, Dufresne, Budd.
Marloes started training martial arts at age 14, and made her pro MMA debut in the year 2000. She has fought in organizations such as Shooto, Smackgirl, ReMix, K-Grace, Strikeforce, Invicta, DREAM, and Bellator.
(Yes, there was an org called “Smackgirl.” I did not make that up. Maybe not the best branding, in retrospect.)

6. CRIS CYBORG View attachment 850289

Record: 23-2-1
Notable wins: 8 (Baszler, Carano, Coenen x2, Holm, Kunitskaya, Spencer, Budd, Blencowe)
Championships won: 4 (Strikeforce, Invicta, UFC, Bellator)
Title defenses: 8
Champs beaten: 7 (Baszler, Coenen x 2, Smith, Holm, Evinger, Budd, Blencowe)
Losses: Erica Paes, Amanda Nunes
1 NC due to PED test failure
Cyborg has a Muay Thai base, and debuted in 2005. She has a 2-1 Muay Thai record, a 7-1 submission grappling record, and has fought for Storm Samurai, EliteXC, Strikeforce, Invicta, UFC, Bellator, and others.

5. ROSE NAMAJUNAS View attachment 850295

Record: 10-4
Notable wins: 7* (Hill, Van Zant, Torres, Waterson, Jedrzejczyk x 2, Andrade, Zhang)
Championships won: 2 (UFC SW title x 2)
Title defenses: 1
Champs beaten: 5 (Hill, Waterson, Jedrzejczyk x 2, Andrade, Zhang)
Losses: Torres, Esparza, Kowalkiewicz, Andrade
*also holds win over Calderwood on TUF. Technically an exhibition
Rose started training Tae Kwan Do at age 5, then later trained karate, kickboxing, and jiu jitsu. Rose made her professional debut in 2013, and has fought in Invicta and the UFC.

4. JOANNA JEDRZEJCZYK View attachment 850302

Record: 16-4
Notable wins: 9 (Sexton, Esparza, Penne, Gadelha x 2, Letourneau, Kowalkiewicz, Andrade, Torres, Waterson)
Championships won: 1 (UFC SW)
Title defenses: 5
Champs beaten: 6 (Sexton, Esparza, Penne, Andrade, Kowalkiewicz, Waterson)
Losses: Namajunas x 2, Schevchenko, Zhang
Joanna is a Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer. She started training Muay Thai at 16, and made her pro MMA debut in 2012. She has an amateur Muay Thai record of 40-3, and a kickboxing record of 30-3. She has won 5 gold medals and one silver in Muay Thai world championships, and fought MMA in PLMMA, CWFC, UFC, and other orgs.

3. VALENTINA SCHEVCHENKO View attachment 850305

Record: 21-3
Notable wins: 9 (Kaufman, Holm, Pena, Jedrzejczyk, Eye, Carmouche, Chookagian, Maia, Andrade)
Championships won: 1 (UFC FLW)
Title defenses: 5
Champs beaten: 4 (Kaufman, Holm, Jedrzejczyk, Andrade)
Losses: Carmouche, Nunes x 2
Valentina is a Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer. She started training Tae Kwan Do at age 5, Muay Thai at age 12, and then Vale Tudo. She has a kickboxing record of 57-2, won 8 gold medals and one silver in Muay Thai world championships, and has a 2-0 pro boxing record. She has fought in many MMA orgs including Legacy, Fusion, and UFC.

2. RONDA ROUSEY View attachment 850307

Record: 12-2
Notable wins: 8 (Budd, Tate x 2, Kaufman, Carmouche, McMann, Davis, Zingano, Correia)
Championships won: 1* (Strikeforce BW, later promoted to UFC BW)
Title defenses: 7
Champs beaten: 5 (Budd, Tate x 2, Kaufman, Davis, Zingano)
Losses: Holm, Nunes
Ronda began training judo at age 11. She has won a variety of medals in the Pan Am Games, Pan Am Championships, World Judo Championships, and was a bronze medalist in judo in the 2008 Olympic Games. She made her MMA pro debut in 2011, and has fought in KOTC, HKFC, Strikeforce, and UFC.

1. AMANDA NUNES View attachment 850310

Record: 21-4
Notable wins: 11 (Budd, De Randamie x 2, Baszler, Schevchenko x 2, McMann, Rousey, Pennington, Cyborg, Holm, Spencer, Anderson)
Championships won: 2 (UFC BW, and UFC FW, held simultaneously)
Title defenses: 7 (UFC BW x 5, UFC FW x 2)
Champs beaten: 10 (Budd, De Randamie x 2, Baszler, Schevchenko x 2, Rousey, Tate, Cyborg, Holm, Spencer, Anderson)
Losses: 4 (Ana Maria, Davis, D’Alelio, Zingano)
Nunes started training capoeira at age 5 and karate when she was 7. She started training jiu jitsu when she was 16. Amanda has fought in Prime: MMA Championship, Samurai FC, Strikeforce, Invicta, UFC, and others.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Germaine De Randamie, Yuka Tsuji, Megumi Fuji, Tara LaRosa, Gina Carano, Cat Zingano.

Spoiler

@Ares Black @Ironnik94 @Kyojiro Kagenuma @Zebra Cheeks @Spath @Arkham's Notorious Geyser

How do you not have Megumi Fuji?

 

[Sensee]

I disagree with a few of the rankings but it's a well
thought out list. Lists like this are opinions and I respect how you came to your conclusions.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Thanks Inga, I appreciate it.
If we were to remove Holm, who would you have enter the Top 10 that isn’t there now?

Mega Megu. She's from those early years and it's harder to do rankings across generations of fighters. Also GDR. yeah, the duck of Cyborg was embarrassingly bad. But she's a better fighter than Holm imo, and has the win over her.

Holm is an above average, but not great MMA fighter imo. Maybe I am being too hard on her, but I don't think so. I know she was champ, and she's got that glorious killshot headkick on Rousey, so props for that.

Also, I like where you put Cyborg. I think her resume is so weak that she'll continue falling off pretty hard in terms of all time WMMA. Really wish we'd have seen De Randamie vs Cyborg, I feel like that fight would tell us a lot about both fighters.

 

[GGpX]

1- Amanda Nunes
2- Megumi Fuji
3- Ronda Rousey
4- Valentina Schevchenko (On eye test alone, she's #1 in my book)
5- Joanna Jędrzejczyk

That's probably my ranking.

 

[blaseblah]

Also, I like where you put Cyborg. I think her resume is so weak that she'll continue falling off pretty hard in terms of all time WMMA. Really wish we'd have seen De Randamie vs Cyborg, I feel like that fight would tell us a lot about both fighters.

De Randamie should have an L on her record to Cyborg just for being such a coward.

It's funny how the Cyborg mystique had so many fighters shook. Her weak resume isn't really her fault, I think all the good fighters were scared to face her until Nunes took a chance.

 

[beastman]

Rousey above Val and Rose below JJ

Agree.

Feel bad for Rousey. She could have had a better career with a better coach.

 

[GGpX]

Agree.

Feel bad for Rousey. She could have had a better career with a better coach.

I think a better coach would have netted her one extra win, all assuming she didn't have any additional fights beyond her current record.

I don't think a better coach would have gotten her a win over Nunes.

 

[BFoe]

How do you not have Megumi Fuji?

Mega Megu. She's from those early years and it's harder to do rankings across generations of fighters. Also GDR. yeah, the duck of Cyborg was embarrassingly bad. But she's a better fighter than Holm imo, and has the win over her.

Holm is an above average, but not great MMA fighter imo. Maybe I am being too hard on her, but I don't think so. I know she was champ, and she's got that glorious killshot headkick on Rousey, so props for that.

Also, I like where you put Cyborg. I think her resume is so weak that she'll continue falling off pretty hard in terms of all time WMMA. Really wish we'd have seen De Randamie vs Cyborg, I feel like that fight would tell us a lot about both fighters.

Yeah Cyborg was tough to rank, so I’m glad you see my perspective there.
I was surprised that the thing that pissed people off the most in this list was the fact that Fuji didn’t make my Top10. And tbh, even if we scrapped Holm (and I don’t think we should) I would have Kaufman move into the Top 10 before Fuji. Fuji was very talented and great fighter. She’s a pioneer. But she doesn’t have wins over great names, she never won a significant title and defended it like everyone else on the list. She just didn’t have that kind of career. Fuji would be around #12 or #13 for me.
I do get the point about Holm though. She’s not super amazing, but based on resume and accomplishments I think she ranks well.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

No way. Megan’s resume smokes Kobold’s. We agree about Carano though.

It's true that Kobold has at least ten wins over girls who never won a fight, and most of them are 0-1 for their careers. So yeah. She does have wins over ladies like Shayna Baszler and Adrienne Jenkins.

But Anderson is a can. She's got that flukey win over Zingano, but otherwise Zingano beats her eleven out of ten times.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

De Randamie should have an L on her record to Cyborg just for being such a coward.

It's funny how the Cyborg mystique had so many fighters shook. Her weak resume isn't really her fault, I think all the good fighters were scared to face her until Nunes took a chance.

I definitely think Cyborg shares blame for her weak resume. Bulking up in nefarious ways while still fighting blown up bantamweights and flyweights. Then when she took a bad loss and had some good FW challenges, she turned tail.

 

[blaseblah]

Yeah Cyborg was tough to rank, so I’m glad you see my perspective there.
I was surprised that the thing that pissed people off the most in this list was the fact that Fuji didn’t make my Top10. And tbh, even if we scrapped Holm (and I don’t think we should) I would have Kaufman move into the Top 10 before Fuji. Fuji was very talented and great fighter. She’s a pioneer. But she doesn’t have wins over great names, she never won a significant title and defended it like everyone else on the list. She just didn’t have that kind of career. Fuji would be around #12 or #13 for me.
I do get the point about Holm though. She’s not super amazing, but based on resume and accomplishments I think she ranks well.

Fuji went 26-3 with one of her losses a clear robbery and the other 2 highly contested. She didn't have a legitimate loss until she aged out of the sport at 38. I don't see how you can put Julia Budd above her.

 

[blaseblah]

I definitely think Cyborg shares blame for her weak resume. Bulking up in nefarious ways while still fighting blown up bantamweights and flyweights. Then when she took a bad loss and had some good FW challenges, she turned tail.

Roids or not, she's a legitimate featherweight. The only way for those fights to happen was for someone to challenge her at 145. Everyone was shook. De Randamie was so shook she gave up a belt. They even made a TUF season to find her competition at 145 and everyone from that season fled the division.

She came to the UFC and her first three fights were against unranked 135ers. That wasn't her fault. That was the best the UFC could find for her until Holly and Nunes were willing to give it a shot.

 

[GGpX]

I understand why OP might rank Megumi Fujii as an Honorable Mention based on the criteria used, but I don't quite agree with it.

Fujii has no names on her resume because at the time, there were no names. Which names were there at ~115 back in the day? Everyone looked mediocre because, well, everyone except her was mediocre. Women's MMA in the mid-2000s was a joke if you weren't a 135er. She was the consensus best fighter in WMMA for a long time and, I don't think she has more than one legitimate loss.

It's like saying Royce Gracie was never all that good because his list of wins are mostly against middling at best competition. Who's his best win, Dan Severn probably?

Also, I don't know how you can say she has no notable wins, but then include Kathlyn Chookagian and Jessica Maia as a notable wins for Shevchenko or Felicia Spencer for Nunes. Sorry, being "good enough" to be the #1 contender in the worst divisions does not make it a notable win.