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#4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk – former UFC women's strawweight champion
For some UFC fans, it would seem bizarre to rank Joanna Jedrzejczyk above Rose Namajunas in a list like this. After all, ‘Thug Rose’ defeated the Polish star to take her UFC women's strawweight title and then bested her for a second time in a rematch.
However, Jedrzejczyk still has the edge over her former rival for a simple reason: her reign as UFC women's strawweight champion was amongst the best and most dominant title reigns in UFC history.
Jedrzejczyk came into the UFC in late 2014 with an unbeaten MMA record and a reputation as a monstrous kickboxer. She quickly reeled off impressive wins over Juliana Lima and Claudia Gadelha.
That was enough to net her a shot at then-UFC strawweight queen Carla Esparza. Incredibly, Jedrzejczyk still went into that fight as an underdog due to question marks around her ground game.
Those questions were quickly answered when she used her striking to blitz ‘Cookie Monster’, ruthlessly finishing her off in the second round.
From there, Jedrzejczyk would continue to dominate her foes, defeating five straight challengers in largely lopsided fashion. At her best, in her defenses against Claudia Gadelha and Jessica Andrade, the Polish fighter looked absolutely unbeatable.
Of course, that idea was proven wrong by Namajunas at UFC 217 and since losing her title, Jedrzejczyk has won just two more fights while losing three. But the fact that one of those losses was arguably the best women’s fight in UFC history, her crazy war with Weili Zhang, coupled with her five successful title defenses means she’s still deserving of a spot on this list.
#3. Ronda Rousey – former UFC women's bantamweight champion
If this list were being judged on impact rather than fighting ability, there can be no question that former UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey would be right at the top. In that sense, nobody else comes close.
It was, after all, Rousey’s marketability as the Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion that triggered UFC president Dana White to change his mind and introduce female fighters to the octagon in the first place.
And after entering the UFC with a win over Liz Carmouche and becoming the inaugural UFC women's bantamweight champion in the process, ‘Rowdy’ quickly established herself as one of the biggest stars in MMA history.
She put together an incredible run as champion, making a total of six successful title defenses. The nature of those defenses made her look so dominant that some fans wondered if she could even beat some of the UFC’s male fighters. In fact, the final three defenses of her reign against Alexis Davis, Cat Zingano and Bethe Correia lasted a combined total of just 64 seconds.
It’s true that the end of Rousey’s UFC career didn’t exactly go to plan. She was knocked out by Holly Holm and lost her title. 'Rowdy' then suffered another KO at the hands of Amanda Nunes.
However, her accomplishments prior to that, as well as her star power and overall impact on women’s MMA, mean she will always be considered an all-time great. Frankly, without her, women’s MMA would probably not be where it is today.
