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The UFC is an innovator in the world of mixed martial arts. While the promotion has abandoned its days of hosting tournaments, it has yielded to a different idea in recent years. Stockton legend Nate Diaz made his long-awaited return to the octagon back in 2019 and faced Anthony Pettis at UFC 241. Diaz earned a dominant win in what he claimed was his defense of the BMF championship: a symbolic title for the supposed 'Baddest Motherf**ker' in the UFC.
Impressed with Jorge Masvidal's five-second knockout win over Ben Askren, Diaz welcomed the challenge 'Gamebred' posed, and the two were scheduled to lock horns at UFC 244. To generate hype for the matchup, Dana White agreed to Diaz's demands and created a silver-plated BMF championship belt to be claimed by the bout's winner. Jorge Masvidal emerged as the victor by a third round TKO and became the UFC's first BMF champion.
While the first and only BMF title fight took place in 2019, former UFC strawweight champion and recent MMA retiree Joanna Jędrzejczyk expressed an interest in returning for a potential women's BMF title fight. While no such bout seems to be in the making, this list examines five female UFC fighters who are candidates for the BMFs.
#5. UFC strawweight contender - Joanna Jędrzejczyk
The WMMA fighter who first proposed the concept for a women's BMF title fight, Joanna Jędrzejczyk is a former strawweight champion. While the former kickboxer is now retired, she has expressed an interest in returning for a BMF title bout. At her peak, Jędrzejczyk was a relentless kickboxer who applied ceaseless pressure against every foe.
Her takedown defense was impregnable as she battered and bloodied her foes en route to recording the most UFC title defenses in the strawweight division while also owning the division's longest winning streak along with three Fight of the Night honors.
In fact, Jędrzejczyk's merits as a fighter are so pronounced that only Amanda Nunes, the WMMA GOAT, equals the number of title fights she’s taken part in. The former strawweight champion is also remembered for her indomitable will and fearsome durability, dragging Zhang Weili to the fifth round of an action-packed bout while her head was inflated by one of the largest hematomas ever seen by UFC audiences.
In her heyday, Jędrzejczyk turned down no challengers, facing anyone and everyone while exhibiting psychotic confidence and needling her opponents with cold-blooded trash talk.
#4. Jessica Andrade
Before the emergence of Zhang Weili, Brazilian bruiser Jessica Andrade was the most fearsome strawweight in the promotion. Powerful, monstrously strong and tireless, Andrade fought at a pace that contradicted the amount of knockout power behind her strikes.
Worse still, her toughness and durability allowed her to withstand anything and everything her foes threw in her path. Recently, Andrade faced off against the power-punching Amanda Lemos, defeating her with the first standing arm-triangle choke in UFC history; a submission that was a testament to her improbable physical strength.
Few, however, can forget how she captured the strawweight championship from Rose Namajunas. Andrade is well-known for her powerful slams. Specifically, she often secures high-crotch single-leg takedowns, which she often uses to redirect her airborne opponents before slamming them to the ground.
One such slam resulted in one of the most spectacular knockouts in strawweight history when Namajunas locked her arm in a counter-kimura to dissuade Andrade from finishing the slam. The Brazilian, however, paid Namajunas' submission attempt no mind, driving her head into the ground and knocking her unconscious to capture UFC gold.
#3. Zhang Weili
The first-ever Chinese champion in UFC history, Zhang Weili is an exceptionally skilled mixed martial artist blessed with brutish strength, blistering speed and seismic punching power. She debuted in the UFC off the back of a 15-fight win streak. Upon amassing three straight wins in the promotion, she was scheduled to face the then reigning strawweight champion Jessica Andrade.
Many dismissed Zhang's chances, believing that Andrade's power, tenacity and strength would prove to be far too great an obstacle. No one but perhaps Zhang herself could have predicted the outcome of the matchup.
The Brazilian rushed forward, and Zhang made her pay dearly, rocking her in the clinch with knees and elbows before knocking her unconscious within 42 seconds of the first round. The Chinese phenom followed her shocking knockout by successfully defending her title against strawweight legend Joanna Jędrzejczyk in the greatest women’s MMA fight of all time.
While Zhang ultimately lost her championship in her next fight against Rose Namajunas and then proved unsuccessful in the rematch, she faced Jędrzejczyk for a second time, knocking her into retirement with a spinning back-fist.
#2. Julianna Peña
There is no greater upset in recent MMA history than Julianna Peña defeating Amanda Nunes. Prior to losing to Peña, Amanda Nunes was on a 12-fight win streak. Her list of victims included former world champions Holly Holm, Germaine de Randamie, Miesha Tate, Cris Cyborg, Ronda Rousey, and even current flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko, who the Brazilian bested twice. Her punching power continues to have no match in women's MMA, and her skill set is deep enough that she troubles her foes in every facet of mixed martial arts.
However, that meant nothing to Julianna Peña. A longtime contender at women's bantamweight, 'The Venezuelan Vixen' had been campaigning for a matchup with Amanda Nunes for quite some time prior to finally facing her at UFC 269. While Peña indeed felt Nunes’ power, she didn’t wilt.
Instead, she stood her ground, firing back and taking the fight to the Brazilian great until Nunes' cardio failed her and Peña's will persevered. Not only did she beat the women's featherweight champion, but 'The Venezuelan Vixen' did so with a rear-naked choke, forcing the greatest women's fighter in history to surrender by outlasting and facing her without fear.
#1. Valentina Shevchenko
Widely regarded as the pound-for-pound women's MMA fighter in the world, Valentina Shevchenko is the women's BMF. A former kickboxing champion who knocked out a 22-year-old opponent at just 12 years of age, and has four wins—three in kickboxing and one in MMA—over former strawweight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Shevchenko spent the first half of her UFC career in the bantamweight division fighting larger opponents.
While she was undersized for the division, Shevchenko still managed to defeat every single foe with the exception of Liz Carmouche—who was losing the bout and only won due to a doctor stoppage over a cut—and Amanda Nunes, whose size advantage was such that she became the champion at featherweight: two weight classes above Shevchenko.
After dropping to the flyweight division and capturing the inaugural title, the current flyweight queen went on to successfully defend her championship seven times, breaking the record set by the legendary Ronda Rousey for the most title defenses in any women's division in UFC history.
However, it is not merely Shevchenko's success inside the octagon that renders her a BMF, but her skills outside the cage as well. The reigning flyweight champion is a markswoman. She is proficient at handling various firearms and regularly takes part in shooting competitions, having been trained by her coach, who is also an army veteran.
