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I realized this the other day and didn't find any threads about it, so here we go. This is based on FightMatrix, which IMO writes the best, most thorough championship lineages in MMA.
The important point is the UFC women's flyweight division only dates back to 2017. Women were fighting at flyweight before that. I don't know the names on the original lineage and not much info is available about some of the fights, but that lineage dies out in 2006 and a new lineage begins in December 2013 when Barb Honchak defeats Leslie Smith to defend her Invicta women's flyweight title.
In December 2013 FightMatrix's published rankings snapshots have Honchak as the #1 flyweight in the world and Leslie Smith as #2 so that is a top contender fight to start a new lineage. Honchak had won the inaugural Invicta flyweight belt in April 2013 against Vanessa Porto but FightMatrix has that as #3 vs #4 at the time so not a top contender fight.
After defending once more against Takayo Hashi, Honchak is inactive for almost 3 years. She goes on TUF and wins a couple of exhibitions, then loses an exhibition to Nicco Montaño, but that doesn't count. Then in her official UFC debut, Honchak drops the lineal title by split decision to Lauren Murphy in December 2017. (Honchak fights once more in the UFC, loses to Roxanne Modafferi, and retires, which is reasonable as she is 38 at the time.)
Even though Valentina Shevchenko dominates Lauren Murphy when they eventually fight in 2021, Murphy had already dropped the lineal title in her very next fight, a UD loss to Sijara Eubanks in June 2018.
Eubanks wins her next fight against Roxanne Modafferi but misses weight in the process, then spends all of 2019 and 2020 fighting at bantamweight, going 2-4 at the higher weight class, but, you can't win the lineal flyweight title by beating the lineal champ in the wrong weight class.Sarj returns to flyweight with a win against Elise Reed followed by a TKO loss to Melissa Gatto in December 2021.
Gatto loses her very next fight to Tracy Cortez, a UD in May 2022. Cortez is undefeated in the UFC (4-0) but hasn't fought since.
Honchak defended the lineal title once in Invicta. The only person who has successfully defended the women's flyweight lineal title while in the UFC is Sijara Eubanks, despite the fact she competed more often at bantamweight and really struggled to make 125. Sarj has a mediocre pro MMA record of 7-7, but she's basically been fighting UFC competition her whole career (10 UFC fights, her 4 non-UFC fights include losses to Aspen Ladd and Katlyn Chookagian).
TL;DR: the lineal women's flyweight title has been in the UFC since 2017, but the 3 UFC women's flyweight champions (Montaño, Valentina Shevchenko, and Alexa Grasso) have not held it at any point.
Barb Honchak (2013) (defended 1x) > Lauren Murphy (2017) > Sijara Eubanks (2018) (defended 2x) > Melissa Gatto (2021) > Tracy Cortez (2022)
The important point is the UFC women's flyweight division only dates back to 2017. Women were fighting at flyweight before that. I don't know the names on the original lineage and not much info is available about some of the fights, but that lineage dies out in 2006 and a new lineage begins in December 2013 when Barb Honchak defeats Leslie Smith to defend her Invicta women's flyweight title.
In December 2013 FightMatrix's published rankings snapshots have Honchak as the #1 flyweight in the world and Leslie Smith as #2 so that is a top contender fight to start a new lineage. Honchak had won the inaugural Invicta flyweight belt in April 2013 against Vanessa Porto but FightMatrix has that as #3 vs #4 at the time so not a top contender fight.
After defending once more against Takayo Hashi, Honchak is inactive for almost 3 years. She goes on TUF and wins a couple of exhibitions, then loses an exhibition to Nicco Montaño, but that doesn't count. Then in her official UFC debut, Honchak drops the lineal title by split decision to Lauren Murphy in December 2017. (Honchak fights once more in the UFC, loses to Roxanne Modafferi, and retires, which is reasonable as she is 38 at the time.)
Even though Valentina Shevchenko dominates Lauren Murphy when they eventually fight in 2021, Murphy had already dropped the lineal title in her very next fight, a UD loss to Sijara Eubanks in June 2018.
Eubanks wins her next fight against Roxanne Modafferi but misses weight in the process, then spends all of 2019 and 2020 fighting at bantamweight, going 2-4 at the higher weight class, but, you can't win the lineal flyweight title by beating the lineal champ in the wrong weight class.Sarj returns to flyweight with a win against Elise Reed followed by a TKO loss to Melissa Gatto in December 2021.
Gatto loses her very next fight to Tracy Cortez, a UD in May 2022. Cortez is undefeated in the UFC (4-0) but hasn't fought since.
Honchak defended the lineal title once in Invicta. The only person who has successfully defended the women's flyweight lineal title while in the UFC is Sijara Eubanks, despite the fact she competed more often at bantamweight and really struggled to make 125. Sarj has a mediocre pro MMA record of 7-7, but she's basically been fighting UFC competition her whole career (10 UFC fights, her 4 non-UFC fights include losses to Aspen Ladd and Katlyn Chookagian).
TL;DR: the lineal women's flyweight title has been in the UFC since 2017, but the 3 UFC women's flyweight champions (Montaño, Valentina Shevchenko, and Alexa Grasso) have not held it at any point.
Barb Honchak (2013) (defended 1x) > Lauren Murphy (2017) > Sijara Eubanks (2018) (defended 2x) > Melissa Gatto (2021) > Tracy Cortez (2022)
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