The MMA Freak rankings are voted on by members of the writing staff. Fighters who are serving drug related suspensions, have been inactive for twelve months or have recently retired are currently ineligible. Also fighters are only eligible for one weight class unless they are champions in multiple divisions in which case they are exceptions to the rule:
Top 10 Women’s P4P Fighters (10/30/20)
1) Amanda Nunes (1)
2) Valentina Shevchenko (2)
3) Cristiane Venacio (3)
4) Zhang Weili (4)
5) Rose Namajunas (5)
6) Joanna Jedrzejczyk (6)
7) Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (7)
8) Seo Hee Ham (8)
9) Ayaka Hamasaki (9)
10) Jennifer Maia (10)
Honorable Mentions
Megan Anderson, Julia Budd, Jessica Andrade, Germaine de Randamie, Kayla Harrison
*Ronda Rousey and Tatiana Suarez are ineligible due to inactivity.
Top 10 Women’s Open Weights (10/30/20)
1) Larissa Pacheco (2)
2) Sarah Kaufman (3)
3) Roberta Samad (4)
4) Bobbi-Jo Dalziel (5)
5) Morgan Frier (6)
6) Genah Fabian (7)
7) Kendra Wilczynski (8)
8) Mariana Morais (9)
9) Bianca Daimoni (10)
10) Yana Gadelha (N/A)
Honorable Mentions
Gabby Holloway, Laura Sanchez, Amanda Bell, Miranda Barber, Lucie Gotthard
*Gabi Garcia, Barbara Nepomuceno, Jozette Cotton, Sarah Patterson, Sarah Petzold, Brittney Elkin and Lei’D Tapa are ineligible as inactive.
**Due to the cancellation of the 2020 PFL season, the open weight rankings have been given an additional 12 month grace period of eligibility. However, all other ranking eligibility rules apply.
Top 10 Women’s Featherweights (10/30/20)
1) Amanda Nunes (1)
2) Cristiane Venacio (2)
3) Megan Anderson (3)
4) Julia Budd (4)
5) Felicia Spencer (5)
6) Arlene Blencowe (6)
7) Cat Zingano (7)
8) Leslie Smith (8)
9) Kayla Harrison (N/A)
10) Cindy Dandois (10)
Honorable Mentions
Sinead Kavanagh, Kaitlin Young, Reina Miura, Chelsea Chandler, Janay Harding
*Amanda Nunes is ranked in multiple classes but is an exception to the rule.
**Ediane Gomes, Jessica Borga, Pam Sorenson and Auttumn Norton are all ineligible due to inactivity.
Top 10 Women’s Bantamweights (10/30/20)
1) Amanda Nunes (1)
2) Germaine de Randamie (2)
3) Aspen Ladd (3)
4) Holly Holm (4)
5) Raquel Pennington (5)
6) Yana Kunitskaya (6)
7) Irene Aldana (7)
8) Sara McMann (8)
9) Lina Lansberg (9)
10) Macy Chiasson (10)
Honorable Mentions
Pannie Kianzad, Ketlen Vieira, Jessica-Rose Clark, Lisa Spangler, Bea Malecki
*Amanda Nunes is ranked in multiple divisions but is an exception.
**Ronda Rousey is ineligible.
Top 10 Women’s Flyweights (10/30/20)
1) Valentina Shevchenko (1)
2) Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (2)
3) Jennifer Maia (3)
4) Jessica Andrade (4)
5) Katlyn Chookagian (5)
6) Cynthia Cavillo (N/A)
7) Jessica Eye (6)
8) Liz Carmouche (8)
9) Roxanne Modafferi (9)
10) Joanne Calderwood (10)
Honorable Mentions
Lauren Murphy, Juliana Velasquez, Alejandra Lara, Viviane Araujo, Amanda Ribas, Sabina Mazo
*Agnieszka Niedźwiedź and Vanessa Porto are both ineligible for the rankings due to inactivity.
Top 10 Women’s Strawweights (10/30/20)
1) Weili Zhang (1)
2) Rose Namajunas (2)
3) Joanna Jedrzejczyk (3)
4) Carla Esparza (5)
5) Michelle Waterson (6)
6) Angela Hill (7)
7) Tecia Torres (8)
8) Yan Xiaonan (9)
9) Claudia Gadelha (4)
10) Brianna Van Buren (10)
Honorable Mentions
Amanda Lemos, Virna Jandiroba, Lívia Renata Souza, Loma Lookboonmee, Mackenzie Dern
*Tatiana Suarez is ineligible due to inactivity.
**Nina Ansaroff has retired from active competition.
Top 10 Women’s Atomweights (10/30/20)
1) Seo Hee Ham (1)
2) Ayaka Hamasaki (2)
3) Alesha Zappitella (3)
4) Ashley Cummins (6)
5) Miyuu Yamamoto (7)
6) Tomo Maesawa (8)
7) Mina Kurobe (9)
8) Kanna Asakura (10)
9) Jeong Eun Park (N/A)
10) Jillian Decoursey (N/A)
Honorable Mentions
Denice Zamboanga, Suwanan Boonsorn, Yoon Ha Hong, Ritu Phogat, Lindsey VanZandt
*Lisbeth Lopez Silva, Minna Grusander and Viviane Pereira are all ineligible for the rankings due to inactivity.
**Stephanie Frausto, Kay Hansen and Jinh Yu Frey have all vacated the weight class.
***MMA Freak Atomweight rankings cutoff extends to 108 pounds to include the Rizin Super Atomweight division.
Why is Kayla omitted from your open division when the fighters she defeated at PFL are still listed?
I’d also find it interesting to hear your reasoning on ranking Cris Cyborg, who not so long ago lost a fight to a fighter from the BW division, above Weili, who has not lost in 21 fights and has the longest ongoing winning streak in WMMA. Additionally, she has beaten one of the top P4P fighters while Cris has not.
Kayla is now considered a featherweight and per the rankings rules, she is only eligible for one weight class unless she is champion in two divisions, which she is not champion in the traditional sense so she is either in one weight class or the other. Also, Cyborg is ranked higher then Zhang because she is has faced stronger competition over the years consistently whereas Zhang has only faced stronger competition within the last few years.