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The UFC women's division currently has four weight classes: strawweight, flyweight, bantamweight, and featherweight. While the other weight classes have counterparts in the men's division, the UFC's strawweight division is exclusively for female fighters.
The UFC added the 115 lbs weight class in season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter and signed 10 fighters to compete in a tournament to determine the strawweight champion. Carla Esparza became the inaugural women's strawweight champion in 2013. Rose Namajunas currently holds the UFC strawweight title after she dethroned Zhang Weili at UFC 261.
Valentina Shevchenko has dominated the UFC women's flyweight division since she captured the vacant title against Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 231. Shevchenko defended her title for the fifth time with an emphatic second-round TKO victory over Jessica Andrade in her last outing at UFC 261. Having bulldozed through the women's flyweight rankings, it seems that 'Bullet' Valentina might only have some worthy competition left in another dominant champion, Amanda Nunes.
Probably the most formidable force in women's MMA, Amanda Nunes is one of four fighters ever to hold championships in two UFC divisions simultaneously. Amanda Nunes captured the UFC women's bantamweight strap at UFC 200 and successfully defended it thrice before moving up to featherweight in 2018. 'The Lioness' dispatched Chris Cyborg in 51 seconds to become the first woman to hold the title in two separate weight classes simultaneously.
The UFC is unsure of the women's featherweight division:
Amanda Nunes cleaned out the women's featherweight division after submitting Megan Anderson in the first round of their UFC 259 bout. In the aftermath of the event, UFC president Dana White revealed that the future of the women's 145 lbs weight class entirely depended on the reigning champion. Praising the champ-champ, Dana White said in the post-fight presser-
"We’ll keep that division cranking as long as the champ-champ wants to defend it. She’s incredible, and she goes in there and she made it look easy tonight against a really tough girl who hits hard who came to win, so it couldn’t happen to a better human being. She’s one of the sweetest people on earth, and I’m really happy for her. We’re talking about turning her around quick here for the 135-pound title since tonight was an easy night for her."
Currently, the UFC website does not display any names under the women's featherweight division rankings, but it seems the promotion is keeping the division active, nonetheless.
Check out: All the Weight Classes from UFC
