Since Ronda Rousey joined UFC, the popularity of women’s MMA is in a steadily rising trend.
The UFC women’s roster is now full of talented sports stars, known for the martial arts.
There is an elite legion of women combatants to discover, past and present.
The MMA’s division is new enough to look back reasonably quickly and see its founding legends, establishing champions and building combatants.
But today, we’ll be looking at the ladies dominating the division right now. These athletes are seriously jacked up and can severely fight even fighters from the male division if given a chance.
Here are the top 10 best women UFC fighters 2023:
10. Amanda Lemos
Amanda Oliveira de Lemos is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who competes in the Strawweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Amanda Lemos is a striker who started her professional mixed martial arts career in her native Brazilian regional circuit, fighting mostly in Jungle Fight.
Amanda Lemos’ most notable fight was against Marina Rodriguez in the main event of UFC Fight Night 214 on November 5, 2022.
She won the fight by stopping Rodriguez and making her case for a big fight.
As of November 8, 2022, she is ranked #3 in the UFC women’s strawweight rankings and as of March 7, 2023 (while writing this article), she is ranked #10 in the UFC women’s pound-for-pound rankings.
She has a professional MMA record of 13-2-1.
9. Marina Rodriguez
Marina Rodriguez is considered one of the best fighters in the UFC’s strawweight division.
She is currently ranked #3 in the UFC’s official strawweight rankings and has a four-fight winning streak.
Her lone pro loss was a debated split decision to the current champion, Carla Esparza, and she has knocked off both strawweight contenders last year.
MMA fans know Rodriguez for her exceptional fighting from a distance or in the clinch, making her an exceptionally scrappy fighter in the middle range.
She expects to get a title shot between the Carla Esparza vs. Zhang Weili winner “no matter how” she wins at UFC Fight Night 214.
MMA analysts have praised her for her scrappiness in the middle range, with great cardio, a good chin, and high output.
With her impressive record and powerful performances, Marina Rodriguez is well-positioned to be one of the best fighters in the strawweight division.
8. Holly Holm
Holly Rene Holm is a well-known American UFC fighter and a former professional boxer and kickboxer been in female combat
sport for quite a time.
Holm is an ex-UFC Women’s Bantamweight Title Holder and a world medallist many times in boxing while protecting her titles in multiple weight divisions 18 times.
Holly Holm is the only individual to have held a world champion title for boxing and a UFC champion title.
She defeated Ronda Rousey in the event of UFC 193 on the 15th of November, in the year 2015, and won the Bantamweight title.
She is famous for having a fighting style of having sideway movements while hitting jabs to her challenger’s head.
7. Germaine de Randamie
Germaine de Randamie is a very well-known Dutch UFC Fighter who specializes in martial arts and is an ex-kickboxer.
She has never been defeated in authorized fights and now fights in the UFC Featherweight division, and is also the earliest UFC Women’s Featherweight Title Holder.
Randamie won the UFC Featherweight Title on the 11th of February in the year 2017 in a match against Holly Holm.
Towards the end of the 2nd and 3rd rounds, she kept punching her even after the round had ended.
One such punch was with her right hand, which shook Holly, who had stopped hitting back, causing the referee to end the fight.
And by an uncontested agreement, Randamie was declared the champion.
Randamie is the top female UFC fighter in women’s bantamweight rankings.
6. Joanna Jędrzejczyk
Joanna Jedrzejczyk is a talented UFC fighter. She has mastered a mixed martial artist and Muay Thai kickboxer who presently fights in the UFC’s women’s Flyweight and Strawweight divisions.
She has been a past winner of the UFC Women’s Strawweight Title. She won the Strawweight Championship Title by defeating Carla Esparza in a fight on the 14th of March in 2015.
She knocked Carla in the 2nd round of the fight to earn the title and became the earliest woman to hold a UFC crown residing in Poland and the European UFC Champion.
She is famous for having a fighting style of clear-cut and accurate strikes and the sprawl-and-brawl approach.
5. Jessica Andrade
Jessica Andrade is one of the best MMA woman fighters from Brazil who is presently fighting in the Women’s Strawweight Division.
She has been an ex-UFC women’s Strawweight Champion. She won the title in a match against Rose Namajunas in the event of UFC 237 on the 11th of May, 2019.
Andrade defeated Namajunas by knocking her out with a slam in the fight’s 2nd round.
Andrade is the earliest woman to have won matches in 3 altering weight classes.
She holds a present ranking of 5th in the UFC Women’s Pound-for-Pound ratings.
4. Rose Namajunas
Rose Gertrude Namajunas is a talented UFC fighter wrestler presently in the women’s strawweight division born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
She has been an ex-UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion.
She won the championship by winning the match against Joanna Jedrzejczyk by punching her behind the ear, which made her get knocked once and again by punching Joanna with her left arm to her chin, conclusively winning the fight and the championship.
She is famous for her aggressive fighting style, with her intimidating movements of jabs and thigh kicks and also for her unique alterations in the middle of a fight and her professional punching and foot movement.
3. Zhang Weili
Zhang Weili, more popularly known by the name of Magnum, is a skillful top-woman UFC fighter from China.
She competes in the women’s strawweight division of UFC and presently is the UFC Women’s Strawweight World Championship Titleholder.
In the past charts of UFC, there has never been a Chinese and East Asian Champion, hence making Weili the earliest to ever do so.
Weili became the UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion by defeating Jessica Andrade by knocking her out in the duel’s first round.
She holds an ongoing ranking of 3rd in the UFC Women’s Pound-for-Pound ratings.
2. Valentina Shevchenko
Valentina Anatolievna Shevchenko is a very well-known UFC fighter known for her Muay Thai fighting style.
She wrestles in the Flyweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is the present UFC Women’s Flyweight Champion.
She had won the Flyweight Champion by winning against Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Valentina is known for her clear-cut ability to counter-strike and her unique capability to measure the standard of an enemy’s combat and reciprocate with a different group of counteractions.
Her move set of counters is mostly filled with a fast right hook or a twisting wheel kick.
It seriously confused me to rank first because Valentina lost by a minuscule margin to our first ranker.
But many fans, experts, and even MMA fighters consider her the best.
1. Amanda Nunes
Amanda Nunes is the best female UFC fighter in 2023 holding the top spot in women’s pound for pound rankings, women’s bantamweight, and women’s featherweight division.
Amanda is the earliest woman who has won the two-division UFC championship and is the third duellist to have held possession of titles belonging to two different weight divisions at the same time. She is known for her Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Amanda is known to have defeated Cyborg in a matter of 51 seconds of the bout to win and be the UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion. She has also won the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship by defeating Miesha Tate in the form of submission.
Considering all these factors it is safe to say not just currently, Amanda is one of the best female UFC fighters ever.
What about Rousey as number 1?