MMA
Who Is The UFC Women's Featherweight Champion
At this current time, there is no current women’s featherweight division in the UFC due to the lack of talent at the weight class. The most recent champion was Amanda Nunes.
Amanda Nunes and Cris Cyborg//Getty Images
The last UFC women's featherweight champion was in fact Amanda Nunes. “The Lioness” last defended her featherweight title in March 2021 against Megan Anderson. After this bout at UFC 259, the Brazilian would focus on her UFC bantamweight title.
Upon retiring from professional MMA, Nunes would vacate her bantamweight and featherweight titles in June 2023. A year on from this, the featherweight division well and truly seems to have been dissolved by Dana White and the UFC. This is due to the lack of talent in this weight class at this point.
Amanda Nunes’ UFC bantamweight title reign is the fourth-longest title reign in UFC history (1981 days), only behind Demetrious Johnson, Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva.
Amanda Nunes’ Path to UFC Gold & GOAT Status
Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey//Getty Images
Amanda Nunes began her MMA career fighting on small shows in her home country of Brazil, making her debut in 2008, in which she lost via armbar submission.
This did not stop Nunes though as she won five straight fights all by knockout or TKO. Then, she made her Strikeforce debut, in 2011, where she wowed the crowd with a 14-second knockout of Julia Budd.
Unfortunately, Nunes would lose two of her next three fights. In spite of this, the UFC signed her and she made her debut at UFC 163, scoring a TKO win via elbow strikes in Rio de Janeiro. A few months later, she made it back-to-back wins via elbow strikes as she defeated a legend in Germaine de Randamie.
With Nunes riding a 2-0 start to her UFC career, Cat Zingano humbled her, and perhaps this defeat at 178 was the best thing that could ever happen to her. Through the first five years of her MMA career, Nunes was quite limited in terms of grappling knowledge, technique on the ground, and stamina was a big issue. Nevertheless, she carried extraordinary power on the feet, which carried her so far.
In the midst of the defeat to Zingano, Nunes stepped her training up to improve her endurance, wrestling fundamentals and ground game. From this point on, “The Lioness” transformed into a beast, and she went on a tear winning three contender fights in a row before submitting Miesha Tate at UFC 200 to win the UFC bantamweight title.
Nunes’ stock rose even further after destroying Ronda Rousey in the first round at UFC 207. She would defend her title two more times before moving up to the women's featherweight division to face Cris Cyborg, at UFC 232. What was supposed to be a very competitive bout, Nunes knocked Cyborg out inside a minute of the first round to become the UFC featherweight champion.
After back-to-back successful defences of her bantamweight belt, against Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie, Nunes then focused on defending her featherweight strap twice, claiming a decision win in a beatdown against Felicia Spencer, and then securing a very technical submission (reverse triangle armbar) over Megan Anderson. This would end up being Nunes’ final bout at featherweight.
Riding the crest of a 12-fight winning streak, Amanda Nunes would be on the receiving end of one of the biggest shocks in UFC title fight history when she was submitted by Julianna Peña at UFC 269. Due to the Brazilian's dominance in the company, she was granted an immediate rematch in July 2022, and she won her belt back via unanimous decision.
Almost a year out of the cage, Nunes successfully defended her bantamweight title versus Irene Aldana at UFC 289. “The Lioness” announced her retirement inside the octagon after the fight, and ten days later she officially vacated both her bantamweight and featherweight titles.
History of the UFC's Women's Featherweight Title
The UFC's women’s featherweight title has only had three champions, mainly due to the dominance of Amanda Nunes but also because the weight class has only been around for seven years.
The first female featherweight champ was crowned in 2017 when Germaine de Randamie defeated Holly Holm at UFC 208. However, her title reign would only last 128 days because she was stripped due to inactivity.
Cris Cyborg became the second champion after defeating Tonya Evinger at UFC 214. Cyborg successfully defended her title twice before Amanda Nunes stepped up to featherweight and wiped her out inside a minute at UFC 232.
Jake Staniland is a sports writer who excels in covering a wide range of sports: football, combat sports and the NFL - All three subjects are his lifelong passions.
Jake is a boyhood Sheffield United fan, which is often a curse that he thanks his family for. His favourite Blades player ever is Billy Sharp