Published On: Wed, Nov 19th, 2025

Women's MMA pound-for-pound rankings: A new No. 1 after UFC 322

How do the best mixed martial artists on the planet measure up against each other, regardless of division? That’s the question our USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie women’s pound-for-pound rankings aims to answer.

This past Saturday, two top-five fighters squared off as Valentina Shevchenko held serve with a dominant unanimous decision win over Zhang Weili, who vacated the strawweight title for an opportunity to become a UFC two-division champ. That result has caused a change at the top of the rankings.

See below to find out how the top 15 rank.

Note: Results are through Nov. 15.

More: Complete USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings by division

1. Valentina Shevchenko (+3)

Nov 15, 2025; New York, NY, UNITED STATES; Valentina Shevchenko (red gloves) fights Zhang Weili (blue gloves) in the womens flyweight championship bout during UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

Call it boring if you want to, but Shevchenko completely shut down Weili in every way for a clean-sweep unanimous decision win in the UFC 322 co-main event. The victory marks the 11th overall title-fight win of Shevchenko’s career, tying the two-time 125-pound champion with Amanda Nunes for the most such wins in UFC history. At 37, she’s shown no signs of slowing down.

2. Kayla Harrison (-1)

Since joining the UFC after a dominant five years in the PFL, Harrison has made good on her big talk all while competing (and struggling to make weight) at 135 pounds, with wins over former champ Holly Holm and Ketlen Vieira before making easy work of then-bantamweight champ Peña. With the title now in her hands, we await a possible superfight with women’s GOAT and former teammate Amanda Nunes to be booked.

3. Cris Cyborg (-1)

Years of dominance and a current eight-fight winning streak have kept Cyborg in the top tier of the pound-for-pound rankings for a long time, but it’ll be interesting to see how much longer the 40-year-old veteran remains near the top.

4. Zhang Weili (-1)

It was a bold decision to vacate the UFC strawweight title for a shot at two-division champ immortality, but in the end Weili came up short as she had no answer for Shevchenko in the UFC 322 co-headliner. A move back to strawweight, where she could immediately try to reclaim her belt, likely makes sense, but we’ll see. Prior to UFC 322, Weili had defended her 115-pound title three consecutive times against Amanda Lemos, Yan Xiaonan, and Tatiana Suarez in convincing fashion.

5. Julianna Peña (+1)

Peña was dominated by Harrison to lose the UFC bantamweight title eight months after she won it with a controversial split decision win over Raquel Pennington. Peña’s December 2021 upset of Amanda Nunes is what propelled her into the pound-for-pound rankings.

6. Raquel Pennington (+1)

If not for a controversial loss to Peña that cost her the UFC bantamweight championship, Pennington, 37, could be higher on this list – or she’d have been the one to fall victim to Harrison anyway. As it stands, the 12-year UFC veteran has been out of action for more than a year thanks, in part, to her recent withdrawal from a scheduled September bout with Norma Dumont due to injury.

7. Manon Fiorot (+1)

After coming up short in her UFC flyweight title shot against Shevchenko, Fiorot rebounded with a definitive first-round TKO win over Jasudavicius that keeps her among the top female fighters at 125 pounds.

8. Erin Blanchfield (+1)

Nov 15, 2025; New York, NY, UNITED STATES; Erin Blanchfield (red gloves) reacts after defeating Tracy Cortez (blue gloves) in the womens flyweight bout during UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

Blanchfield was on course for a UFC flyweight title shot but stumbled by losing to Fiorot, who received the shot on the strength of that victory. Blanchfield got back on track at UFC 322 with an impressive rear-naked choke finish in her rematch with Cortez.

9. Mackenzie Dern

Dern was on a downward trajectory after back-to-back losses to Jessica Andrade and Amanda Lemos before rebounding with consecutive wins over Loopy Godinez and Amanda Ribas to position herself to fight for the title vacated by Weili. Dern was tested but ultimately came out victorious in her rematch with Jandiroba to claim the 115-pound title.

10. Larissa Pacheco (-5)

In her only fight of 2024, Pacheco performed well against Cyborg but ultimately dropped a unanimous decision. Prior to the defeat, she had been on a 10-fight winning streak, which included a 2022 upset of Harrison. Pacheco didn’t compete in 2025 and what comes next is up in the air after she parted ways with the PFL in October.

11. Virna Jandiroba

Jandiroba came up short in her bid for the vacant UFC strawweight title, losing to Dern, which halted her winning streak at five.

12. Tatiana Suarez

Suarez, long considered a lock to be a future UFC champion, received a rude awakening in her title fight to Weili, but a nice win over Lemos in September, combined with Dern expressing interest in Suarez as her first title defense, means her second shot could come sooner than later.

13. Natalia Silva

Silva, who’s on a 13-fight overall winning streak and hasn’t lost since 2017, announced herself as a serious threat at 125 pounds in a big way by outclassing Grasso in her last fight. Silva in all likelihood is awaiting the winner of Shevchenko-Weili to challenge for the flyweight title.

14. Dakota Ditcheva

Dakota Ditcheva def. Sumiko Inaba - 2025 PFL Championship Series at the Grand West Arena in Cape Town, South Africa Saturday, July 19, 2025. (Matt Ferris / PFL)

Record: 15-0

Ditcheva continues to pass the eye test in the PFL, which is where she’ll compete for the foreseeable future after re-signing with the promotion. Ditcheva’s November 2024 TKO finish of former UFC title challenger Taila Santos is unquestionably the most impressive win on her undefeated resume. Unless the PFL acquires someone notable, it’s likely to remain so.

15. Alexa Grasso

Grasso’s 2023 upset of Shevchenko to claim the UFC flyweight title was the crowning achievement of her career, but it’s been downhill since then after she fought Shevchenko to a draw in the rematch and lost the trilogy. To follow that chapter of her career, Grasso was outclassed by Silva.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Women’s MMA pound-for-pound rankings: UFC 322 delivers new No. 1

Most Popular Posts

Categories