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There are few more entertaining things to see in the world of the UFC than a major upset. Ever since the promotion introduced female divisions, we’ve seen plenty of stunning results.
Julianna Pena’s win over Amanda Nunes at UFC 269 was a huge upset, but does it rank amongst the biggest upsets involving female fighters?
Given Nunes’ status as the greatest female fighter in UFC and MMA history, the answer is that yes, it certainly does. But what are some of the others?
Here are the five biggest upsets in UFC history involving female fighters.
#5. Valentina Shevchenko vs. Holly Holm – UFC on Fox 20
At this stage, it seems insane to think that Valentina Shevchenko could ever have been responsible for an upset.
‘Bullet’ has held the UFC flyweight title for the past three years, making a total of six successful title defenses in the process. Essentially, if a challenger were to dethrone her now, then it’d probably be considered one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
However, if you rewind back to 2016, Shevchenko was still largely unheralded. The native of Kyrgyzstan debuted in the UFC in late 2015 with a win over Sarah Kaufman, but lost out to Amanda Nunes in her second bout and looked somewhat undersized in the bantamweight division.
So when the UFC booked her against former bantamweight champ Holly Holm, who was coming off her defeat at the hands of Miesha Tate, it felt like they’d put together the perfect bounce-back fight for ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’.
After all, Holm was widely considered the most highly credentialed female striker in UFC history at that point, with her boxing accomplishments dwarfing Shevchenko’s success in Muay Thai.
However, despite dropping ‘Bullet’ in the first round, Holm soon found herself firmly outgunned by her smaller opponent. Shevchenko managed to force ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ onto the offensive and then used her skills to work her over on the counter for a five-round decision.
The result didn’t produce as much fanfare at the time as it should’ve done, probably because it wasn’t hugely exciting. Given where both women were in their UFC careers at the time, it should still be remembered as a major upset.
#4. Rose Namajunas vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk – UFC 217
Back in 2017, there were few more dominant champions in the UFC than Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
The native of Poland claimed the UFC strawweight title at UFC 185 in 2015 by destroying Carla Esparza. In the years that followed, she pulled off five straight successful title defenses.
It seemed like no fighter in the UFC at 115 pounds could handle Jedrzejczyk’s brutal striking skills. She became so confident in them that she even christened herself ‘Joanna Champion’.
When the UFC booked her in for her sixth defense against Rose Namajunas at UFC 217, it felt like it would be business as usual for the champion. After all, despite a good run, Namajunas held recent losses to Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Esparza, both of whom had been dispatched by Jedrzejczyk with ease.
However, to the shock of everyone watching, ‘Thug Rose’ came in with far sharper striking than she’d shown before. In the first round, she connected with a clean left hand that dropped Jedrzejczyk. Before the champ could recover, Namajunas followed with a flurry that forced the champion to tap out.
The entire UFC, from the fans to the announcing team, were stunned by the result, as nobody expected Jedrzejczyk to lose, particularly by knockout.
Despite Namajunas proving her excellence by defeating the former champ in a rematch, this remains one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
#3. Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm – UFC 193
Widely considered one of the biggest upsets in UFC history at the time, in hindsight, it’s probably fair to suggest that people should’ve seen Ronda Rousey’s big loss to Holly Holm coming.
Sure, ‘Rowdy’ had been thoroughly dominant over every fighter she’d faced up to that point, dispatching of opponents like Cat Zingano and Miesha Tate in the UFC, but in the fights leading up to UFC 193, she’d begun to rely less on her grappling and more on a powerful, but wild, striking game.
In reality, then, seeing a striker as credentialed as ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ pick Rousey apart en route to a second round TKO win shouldn’t have been that surprising.
However, to put it that way would be doing a huge disservice to quite how dominant Rousey was seen as being back in 2015. Not only had she been defeating her challengers, but she’d been destroying them with ridiculous ease, needing just over a minute combined to put away Zingano, Bethe Correia and Alexis Davis.
In fact, ‘Rowdy’ had been looking so good that the likes of Joe Rogan were openly questioning whether she could actually defeat some of the UFC’s male bantamweights.
With that considered, then, it’s easy to see why everyone was left gobsmacked when Holm knocked her silly with a head kick, essentially ending her career as a top level fighter in the process.
Six years later, the knockout has lost none of its impact and remains up there with the biggest upsets in UFC history.
#2. Amanda Nunes vs. Cris Cyborg – UFC 232
When the UFC announced a champion vs. champion fight at UFC 232, pitting bantamweight queen Amanda Nunes against featherweight titleholder Cris Cyborg, it seemed like a doomed task for ‘The Lioness’. After all, not only was she giving up a substantial amount of size to her fellow Brazilian, but nobody had beaten Cyborg in well over a decade.
More importantly, Cyborg was arguably the most feared striker in the UFC, as she’d destroyed every fighter she’d ever fought with her brutal power and had easily dispatched Lesley Smith, Lina Lansberg, Tonya Evinger, Holly Holm and Yana Kunitskaya in the octagon.
However, Nunes held a pretty major trump card in the form of her own concussive striking power, which she’d already demonstrated against the likes of Ronda Rousey and Raquel Pennington, and her superior speed.
So when the two women began to exchange at the start of their clash, it quickly became clear that not only was Nunes a superior technical striker, throwing straight punches in comparison to Cyborg’s winging ones, but that she was quick enough to land them, too.
Just seconds into the fight, ‘The Lioness’ was able to rock her larger foe with punches. With Cyborg stunned, Nunes didn’t let up, unleashing a flurry that knocked her silly in just under a minute.
Three years later, Nunes remains responsible for the only defeat suffered by Cyborg since 2005. Given that nobody saw it coming, the result remains one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
#1. Julianna Pena vs. Amanda Nunes – UFC 269
If Amanda Nunes’ upset of Cris Cyborg was big, Julianna Pena’s defeat of ‘The Lioness’ should be seen as even bigger.
In fact, when you consider Nunes’ status as the greatest female fighter in MMA history, it’s probably easy to consider Pena’s defeat of her the biggest upset in UFC history, period.
Literally nobody was giving ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ a chance in this fight. After all, what could she really offer that challengers like Holly Holm, Germaine de Randamie and Valentina Shevchenko had not? On paper at least, the answer seemed to be nothing.
However, Pena demonstrated incredible self-belief, and came in with a smart, if hugely risky, gameplan.
She grappled with Nunes in the first round, banking on her skills on the mat being enough to allow her to survive, and then chose to trade strikes with her in the second, clearly hoping that ‘The Lioness’ would’ve slowed down enough to make her punches too wild to be effective.
Incredibly, the plan worked, as Pena began to get through with cleaner shots on the feet, landing jabs and heavy power shots on Nunes before managing to secure a takedown. Moments later, the world was shocked when ‘The Venezuelan Vixen’ slapped on a choke variant and forced the champion to submit.
Quite what will happen from here is anyone’s guess. Nunes could well regain the title in the inevitable rematch that’s expected to happen in 2022, but for now at least, Pena’s win over her should be considered the biggest upset to involve female fighters in UFC history.
