The current UFC Title Holders are mostly newly minted, all but two of them have made 1 or less title defenses.
List of UFC Champions:
Men’s UFC Champions Stats:Heavyweight Champion: Stipe Miocic
Light-Heavyweight Champion: Daniel Cormier
Middleweight Champion: Michael Bisping
Welterweight Champion: Tyron Woodley
Lightweight Champion: Conor McGregor
Featherweight Champion: Max Holloway
![]() Bantamweight Champion: Cody Garbrandt
Flyweight Champion: Demetrious Johnson
Women’s UFC Champions Stats:The Most Title Defenses In Ufc HistoryWomen’s Featherweight Champion: Germaine De Randamie
Women’s Bantamweight Champion: Amanda Nunes
Women’s Strawweight Champion: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
The current UFC title holders certainly have some unique stats about them.
Jonathan Bradley @Jon__Bradley
In honor of the UFC’s introduction of a third belt and UFC featherweight division at UFC 208, let’s take a look at the 15 best women currently fighting under the UFC banner.
Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLCZuffa LLC via Getty Images
Most Title Defenses In Ufc LightweightTecia Torres
Tecia Torres bounced back from her first career loss with a convincing win over Bec Rawlings at UFC Houston. The win was her fourth in five UFC fights, but like Waterson, she fought just once in 2016.
Torres is a well-rounded fighter with plenty of potential and could conceivably fight her way into a title shot by the end of the year.
Michelle Waterson
Former Invicta FC atomweight champion Michelle Waterson has proven time and time again that she’s one of the most skilled fighters in the game.
Waterson has submitted all three of her opponents, including Paige VanZant and former title challenger Jessica Pena and has never been outstruck inside the Octagon. The only knock against “The Karate Hottie” is how little she’s fought, and we can thank injuries for that. But now that she’s healthy, expect her to climb this list in 2017.
Jessica Andrade
Jessica Andrade appears set to challenge for the UFC strawweight title after a big win Saturday night in Houston.
After spending the first two years of her UFC career fighting much bigger women in the bantamweight division, including a 1-1 series with Raquel Pennington, Andrade dropped to strawweight in 2016. The move proved to be a smart one, as she finished all three of her opponents and established herself as a legit contender to Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s belt.
Raquel Pennington
Following a split decision loss to Holly Holm in 2015, Raquel Pennington reeled off four straight wins, culminating in a dominant performance against Miesha Tate that saw her crack the bantamweight top 5 at the end of 2016.
2017 presents Pennington with the opportunity to potentially avenge the loss to Holm and maybe we earn a title shot if she keeps on winning.
Julianna Pena
Julianna Pena isn’t completely removed from the title picture after her loss to Valentina Shevchenko but after forcing the fight to the ground -- her comfort zone -- and getting submitted, it’s a pretty big setback. Pena is still very young and no doubt one of the best prospects in the division. However, she has a couple holes to plug if she wants to compete with the top three in the division.
Cat Zingano
As far as talent is concerned, Cat Zingano has it all. She is an aggressive grappler who can strike with the best of them. “Alpha Cat” actually owns TKO wins over current champion Amanda Nunes and former champion Miesha Tate but consecutive losses have hurt Zingano’s standing in the eyes of fans. She’ll need to be much more active and string together victories in 2017 if she wants to climb back into the women’s bantamweight title picture.
Ronda Rousey
Once considered the most dominant woman on the planet, the narrative around Ronda Rousey has changed significantly since she suffered her second straight knockout loss. That doesn’t change the fact that Rousey defended her belt several times while beating multiple opponents in under a minute during her reign as champion -- she definitely deserves to be on this list. But after looking like just a shell of herself in her bout against Nunes, she’ll sit in the middle of the pack until she proves otherwise.
Holly Holm
If we did this list a year ago, Holm would stand tall as the No. 2 or 3 ranked women’s pound-for-pound fighter in the world. But after a tough 2016, Holm enters this list at No. 7. Holm lost her belt to Miesha Tate in heartbreaking fashion to start the year and then fell to Shevchenko in a bout that was predominately fought standing. She has a chance to stop the bleeding when she faces Germaine de Randamie for the inaugural women’s featherweight title. A new belt would definitely bump Holm up a few spots but we’ll need that superfight against Nunes to know where she truly stands.
Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Karolina Kowalkiewicz put up a strong fight the first two rounds of her title fight against Joanna Jedrzejczyk but faded late and ended up losing the striking battle by a tune of a more than 3-to-1 ratio. Despite that setback, Kowalkiewicz is still 3-1 inside the UFC and 12-1 overall. She actually has a split decision win over Rose Namajunas but I scored that fight the other way and think Kowalkiewicz is a bit too one dimensional for the top 5 pound-for-pound.
Rose Namajunas
Potentially the most dynamic fighter on this list, “Ultimate Fighter” season 20 finalist Rose Namajunas comes in at No. 5. Namajunas, like Jedrzejczyk, is a fierce striker. But whereas Jedrzejczyk likes to get it done with punches and elbows, Namajunas prefers a wide array of punches, kicks and whatever other high-flying technique she can think of. The strawweight also has a slick submission game to match her all-action style.
Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesBrandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC
Valentina Shevchenko
After her first loss under the UFC banner to Amanda Nunes, Valentina Shevchenko went on to outstrike and outclass former champion Holly Holm and then submit grappler Julianna Pena to establish herself as the outright No. 1 contender in the women’s bantamweight division.
Shevchenko’s first bout against Nunes was extremely close and both fighters have only gotten better in the year since they faced off. If Shevchenko wants to climb this list, all she has to do is get past Nunes … easier said than done.
Claudia Gadelha
Claudia Gadelha’s only losses in the Octagon have come against strawweight champion Jedrzejczyk, and you could make the argument Gadelha won the fight the first time around. Her suffocating ground game helped her gain notoriety in MMA but she’s gotten better on her feet every time we’ve seen her take the Octagon.
Amanda Nunes
A few more title defenses could help women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes overtake the No. 1 spot, but for now, the Brazilian superstar comes in at No. 3.
Nunes finished 2016 as a candidate for fighter of the year and for good reason. “The Lioness” started the year with a win over now-No. 1 contender Valentina Shevchenko before going on to dethrone Miesha Tate at UFC 200. She ended her run with a brutal beatdown of former champion Ronda Rousey, showing off the striking that many have lauded since her days as a Strikeforce contender.
Nunes is probably the most well-rounded fighter on this list but needs just a few more challenges to establish her true dominance. Given how many talented bantamweights made this list, she’ll have plenty of opportunity to prove herself in the near future.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk
UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is arguably the best women’s fighter on the roster. The Polish-born fighter is a perfect 13-0 and outside of Demetrious Johnson, she is the UFC’s longest reigning active champion.
Jedrzejczyk has been dominant in her time as champion, racking up four title defenses with two Fight of the Night performances along the way. Her striking is elite, as evidenced by her 693-241 significant strikes landed advantage over her last four fights, and her mouthpiece is unmatched.
It might be awhile before anyone takes that belt from her.
Cris Cyborg
Cris Cyborg is one of the most dominant fighters to ever put the gloves on -- man or woman. Cyborg has KOed 15 of her 18 opponents and the last time she lost, Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You Been Gone” was the hottest song on the radio.
Until someone, at the least, takes her to the judges, there is no doubting Cyborg’s placement as the No. 1 pound-for-pound female fighter on the UFC roster.
Demetrious Johnson broke the UFC record for most consecutive title defenses with a massive number of 11 victories with his stunning finish over Ray Borg. Beyond that, before UFC 227, “Mighty Mouse” was the first and only UFC flyweight champion within the history of the promotion.
UFC 227 took place on Saturday, Aug. 4, from within the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif. live on pay-per-view. Co-headlining the night’s card, Demetrious Johnson went toe-to-toe with Henry Cejudo in an exciting title fight rematch.
“Mighty Mouse” earned a dominant first round TKO victory over the Olympic gold medalist in their first fight. However, Cejudo shocked the MMA world with a split decision victory over the hyper-dominant champion on Saturday night.
Speaking to UFC correspondent Megan Olivi after the fight, Demetrious Johnson has come forward with his thoughts on the title loss. Check it out below:
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