The MMA Freak rankings are voted on by members of the writing staff. Note that fighters who are serving drug related suspensions, have been inactive for twelve months or have recently retired are currently ineligible:
Top 10 Women’s P4P Fighters (2/28/19)
1) Amanda Nunes (1)
2) Valentina Shevchenko (3)
3) Cristiane Venacio (2)
4) Rose Namajunas (4)
5) Holly Holm (5)
6) Joanna Jedrzejczyk (6)
7) Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (7)
8) Seo Hee Ham (8)
9) Julia Budd (9)
10) Megan Anderson (10)
Honorable Mentions
Ketlen Vieira, Germaine de Randamie, Kayla Harrison, Jessica Andrade, Liz Carmouche
*Ronda Rousey and Nicco Montano are ineligible due to inactivity.
Top 10 Women’s Open Weights (2/28/19)
1) Kayla Harrison (1)
2) Gabi Garcia (2)
3) Bobbi-Jo Dalziel (3)
4) Reina Miura (4)
5) Jozette Cotton (6)
6) Kaitlin Young (7)
7) Sarah Patterson (8)
8) Moriel Charneski (10)
9) Brittney Elkin (N/A)
10) Barbara Nepomuceno (N/A)
*Lei’D Tapa, Crystal Stokes, Yoshiko Hirano, Destanie Yarbrough and Oksana Gagloeva are all ineligible due to inactivity. Brenda Gonzales and Judith Ruis have vacated the weight class.
Top 10 Women’s Featherweights (2/28/19)
1) Amanda Nunes (1)
2) Cristiane Venacio (2)
3) Holly Holm (3)
4) Julia Budd (4)
5) Megan Anderson (5)
6) Arlene Blencowe (6)
7) Felicia Spencer (7)
8) Talita Nogueira (8)
9) Olga Rubin (9)
10) Amanda Bell (10)
Honorable Mentions
Pam Sorenson, Amber Leibrock, Leah Letson, Pannie Kianzad, Julija Stoliarenko
*Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm are ranked in multiple classes but are exceptions to the rules. Ediane Gomes is ineligible due to inactivity. Macy Chiasson has vacated the weight class.
Top 10 Women’s Bantamweights (2/28/19)
1) Amanda Nunes (1)
2) Holly Holm (4)
3) Ketlen Vieira (2)
4) Germaine de Randamie (3)
5) Aspen Ladd (5)
6) Raquel Pennington (6)
7) Cat Zingano (8)
8) Tonya Evinger (7)
9) Sarah Kaufman (10)
10) Yana Kunitskaya (N/A)
Honorable Mentions
Marion Reneau, Irene Aldana, Talita Bernardo, Macy Chiasson, Lina Lansberg
*Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm are ranked in multiple divisions but are exceptions. Ronda Rousey, Julianna Pena, Leslie Smith and Sara McMann are all ineligible. Lucie Pudilová has vacated the weight class.
Top 10 Women’s Flyweights (2/28/19)
1) Valentina Shevchenko (1)
2) Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (2)
3) Liz Carmouche (3)
4) Jennifer Maia (4)
5) Agnieszka Niedźwiedź (5)
6) Vanessa Porto (6)
7) Roxanne Modafferi (7)
8) Jessica Eye (8)
9) Joanne Calderwood (9)
10) Ariane Lipski (10)
Honorable Mentions
Katlyn Chookagian, Andrea Lee, Pearl Gonzalez, Paige VanZant, Montana De La Rosa
Top 10 Women’s Strawweights (2/28/19)
1) Rose Namajunas (1)
2) Joanna Jędrzejczyk (2)
3) Jéssica Andrade (3)
4) Tatiana Suarez (4)
5) Nina Ansaroff (5)
6) Claudia Gadelha (6)
7) Weili Zhang (N/A)
8) Carla Esparza (9)
9) Michelle Waterson (N/A)
10) Cynthia Calvillo (10)
Honorable Mentions
Tecia Torres, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Mackenzie Dern, Randa Markos, Livia Renanta Souza, Angela Hill
*Jessica Penne and Juliana Lima are both ineligible for the rankings due to inactivity.
Top 10 Women’s Atomweights (2/28/19)
1) Seo Hee Ham (1)
2) Ayaka Hamasaki (2)
3) Jinh Yu Frey (3)
4) Ashley Cummins (4)
5) Tomo Maesawa (5)
6) Mina Kurobe (6)
7) Alesha Zappitella (7)
8) Alyssa Garcia (8)
9) Satomi Takano (9)
10) Jeong Eun Park (10)
Honorable Mentions
Emi Tomimatsu, Amber Brown, Minna Grusander, Lisbeth Lopez Silva, Suwanan Boonsorn
*Naho Sugiyama, Herica Tiburcio and Tessa Simpson is ineligible for the rankings due to inactivity.
Just curious, why has Holm been listed in different divisions while Shevchenko, who beat her, and is ready to fight Nunes whenever Amanda’s willing to face her, not? You had Holm listed in 2 divisions even prior to her taking the fight w/Nunes even though it’s been longer since she fought at 135 than it has been for Shevchenko.
Holly is returning to bantamweight to challenge for the title at which point she will have vacated the featherweight division. Valentina hasn’t fought at bantamweight for 18 months and is defending her flyweight title once again and for the time being she is a flyweight. We aren’t opposed to taking open votes for the rankings however.