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This past weekend at UFC 269, Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena went to battle for the UFC women’s bantamweight title in an instant classic that ended with a major upset.
The UFC women’s bantamweight title has been part of the UFC now for almost a decade. Over the years, we’ve seen a number of classic battles between UFC legends for it.
With five different champions reigning over the division thus far, the UFC has seen a total of 15 women’s bantamweight title bouts, with some being better to watch than the others.
With that considered, here are the five best women’s bantamweight title bouts in UFC history.
#5. Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm – UFC 193
Widely considered one of the greatest upsets in UFC history, Holly Holm’s win over Ronda Rousey for the bantamweight title at UFC 193 still stands up as a classic battle today.
Sure, it was somewhat one-sided, but the fact that Holm was able to take out a fighter who, at the time, was considered completely unbeatable in violent fashion made it a jaw-dropping spectacle to watch.
The fight, as was the case with most of her bouts in the UFC, began with Rousey as the wild aggressor. She’d already taken out Sara McMann and Bethe Correia with flurries of crazy strikes and seemed determined to do the same to Holm.
However, ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ used all of her striking skills to largely avoid Rousey’s wild attacks, even escaping a bad position on the ground at one point. When the fight reached the second round, Holm began to hurt the champion with heavy shots.
A left hand sent Rousey stumbling to the canvas, stunning the live crowd in Melbourne, Australia and leaving them wondering about an upset. Seconds later, those ideas turned to reality as Holm landed a picture-perfect head kick that knocked ‘Rowdy’ senseless, ending her run as champion in the process.
In the six years that have followed, Holm’s head kick has made its way onto most UFC highlight reels and remains one of the most memorable and recognizable moments in the history of the promotion.
#4. Miesha Tate vs. Holly Holm – UFC 196
Following her upset win over Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, many fans expected Holly Holm’s reign as UFC bantamweight champion to last for a lengthy time.
Unfortunately for ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’, the opposite turned out to be true, as she ended up dropping the gold in her first title defense against Miesha Tate at UFC 196.
The one redeeming factor, of sorts? The fight itself was a fascinating, back-and-forth one that saw both women shining for points, complete with a wild ending that practically nobody could’ve seen coming.
The first round went firmly to Holm, who comfortably outstruck the challenger standing to the point where it was easy to suspect the fight would be a rout. However, Tate turned that idea entirely on its head in the second round.
She secured a takedown on the champion and then passed her guard before spending the round on top, hammering Holm with elbows while also hunting for a potential choke.
‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ quickly went back to work in the third round, keeping the fight vertical again and once more comfortably outstriking ‘Cupcake’. When the fourth round followed the same pattern, it looked like Holm’s fight to lose.
Incredibly, though, with the fight slipping away from her in the fifth, Tate somehow managed to duck a punch and land another takedown. This time, knowing she had to finish things off, she wasted no time in taking Holm’s back again.
In a ridiculous visual, ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ then attempted to flip Tate off her back by diving to the ground, only to end up deeper in the choke. From there, ‘Cupcake’ squeezed until the champion passed out.
It was a miraculous and dramatic win for Tate, who, prior to it, looked like she’d go down as one of the best UFC fighters to never hold a title. Five years later, the ending is still pretty stirring.
#3. Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche – UFC 157
The UFC’s inaugural women’s bantamweight title fight was seen, informally at least, as a way to simply crown Ronda Rousey as the promotion’s newest big star.
‘Rowdy’ had been declared the champion a couple of months prior after transferring from the defunct Strikeforce promotion. While the UFC had also inked top-ranked women like Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano, they chose the lower-ranked Liz Carmouche as Rousey’s first opponent.
The fight headlined UFC 157 with plenty of fanfare. While many fans expected it to be a squash in favor of Rousey, the fight turned out to be a wild one that could’ve gone either way.
After a brief exchange to begin with, the two women hit the mat. Incredibly, during a scramble, Carmouche was able to take Rousey’s back. Seconds later, it looked like the impossible was about to happen. Rousey stood, but Carmouche slapped both hooks in and began to work for a possible choke or neck crank.
The hold looked sunk in, causing a collective intake of breath from the crowd. However, Rousey somehow shook Carmouche off and then took over the fight, eventually taking top position, where she eventually secured her trademark fight-ending armbar.
Rousey won the bout and become the big star, just as the UFC had hoped, but it hadn’t come without a serious fight, making this contest an instant classic.
#2. Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate – UFC 168
The greatest rivalry in the history of the UFC women’s bantamweight division remains the bitter feud between Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate.
The two women’s dislike for one another was well established following their bout in Strikeforce in 2012, a fight won by Rousey in the first round. The feud only became nastier after they coached against one another on the 18th season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Given how easily Rousey had dispatched ‘Cupcake’ in their first encounter, though, few fans expected their rematch at UFC 168 to be such a great fight.
Sure, Tate was on the defensive for the majority of the three rounds that the fight lasted, having to fend off a series of submission attempts from Rousey, as well as an aggressive striking game that backed her up at times. However, she never felt completely out of it until the fight ended.
Essentially, this was probably the first time we’d seen ‘Rowdy’ truly tested in an MMA fight. Near-submission from Liz Carmouche aside, she’d simply blown through every other opponent she’d faced with absolute ease.
Here, though, Tate not only escaped her deadly armbar on more than one occasion, but she also forced her into standing exchanges a couple of times, something that would prove to be her kryptonite later down the line. Of course, Tate never could find a way to unleash that kryptonite, though, and she ended up submitting to the famed Rousey armbar in the third round of this fight.
Was that enough for Rousey to want to bury the hatchet? Of course not. After the fight she shunned a handshake from Tate, ensuring that the rivalry would go on. All these years later, it hasn’t really been topped.
#1. Amanda Nunes vs. Julianna Pena – UFC 269
In terms of sheer fight quality, the greatest women’s bantamweight title bout in UFC history has to be this past weekend’s clash between Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena.
Not only did the fight end in the most dramatic way possible, with one of the most shocking upsets in UFC history, but it was also wildly exciting, featured back-and-forth action and saw Nunes come close to finishing Pena in the first round before succumbing in the second.
Nobody was really giving Pena a chance of winning the fight coming in. Nunes had not only ruled over the division since 2016, but ‘The Lioness’ was also widely recognized as the greatest female fighter in UFC history, holding victories over six current or former UFC champions.
Early on, it looked like the betting favorite would come out an easy winner. Nunes took the fight to Pena in the first round, sending her to the ground and then dominating her there, looking to lock up a rear-naked choke that she couldn’t quite finish.
However, in the second round, ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ began to turn the tide. She did it in the most remarkable way possible, by wildly trading with Nunes, a renowned heavy hitter, and using cleaner, straighter punches to hurt the champion.
With the crowd on the edge of their seats, unable to believe what they were seeing, Pena continued to turn up the heat and then managed to trip the hurt Nunes to the ground before submitting her with a choke variant.
It was an incredible ending to a truly incredible fight that featured non-stop action from start to finish.
Essentially, while all of the afore-mentioned title bouts were great, this one featured the best parts of all of them, making it the standout fight in the history of the UFC women’s bantamweight division.
