I decided to go with all of the women's weight classes first and then do the men's instead of alternating back and forth. I was originally planning on alternating, but when I started realizing that I was going to talk about people potentially moving up in weight, it just made more sense to talk all women then talk all men. Also, I'm not planning on doing one of these for women's featherweight. There's just not really much of a substantial division, which is sort of required to do this type of thing. The roster is just so thin that I could literally just list out every single fighter in it, which sounds kind of interesting, until you realize that a lot of them don't have much to say. I guess I may as well do it now if I'm going to talk about it this much. Zarah Dos Santos is 0-2 in the UFC and hasn't fought since February of 2020. Danyelle Wolf is a former boxer transitioning to MMA and her only career fight was a win on Dana White's Contender Series. Leah Letson is 1-1 in the UFC and was dominated by the now retired Felicia Spencer last time. According to tapology, her last fight before that was in 2018. Aspen Ladd can't make 135 lbs, but despite almost dying on several occasions, she still thinks she's a bantamweight and said as much even after her last fight happened at featherweight. Of course, Amanda Nunes is the champion and is great. The only remaining fighter is Norma Dumont and she's actually good. I respect Norma Dumont and what she can do, but a champion and one contender doesn't make a division. Obviously, injecting Kayla Harrison into that changes a lot and probably gives the UFC enough reason to sign a few more respectable fighters for the weight class. Anyways, we can talk about the bantamweights now.
Champion - Julianna Pena
I think a lot of people still overlook Pena after her upset of Amanda Nunes only a few weeks ago. It's still kind of settling in for me that she really did what she did to be honest. What really blew me away was how simple she made the whole thing seem. She's been saying for how long now that she's going to beat Nunes and how she's going to do it. Then she finally went out there and did exactly that. Just because it's straight forward doesn't mean it's going to be easy to repeat, but we've seen her do it once and I'm not going to get caught off guard again. She put on a great performance and it wouldn't really surprise me to see it repeated whenever the rematch is booked.
Next Challenger - Amanda Nunes
Look, we all know this is the case. Amanda Nunes has done too much to not get the immediate rematch and for Julianna Pena to really lock herself into history, this fight needs to happen. Even if Nunes wasn't the female GOAT and wasn't in the overall GOAT conversation, I don't think there's a bigger or better fight to make. Amanda will and probably should be favored in the rematch whenever it happens and that has a lot to do with her overall body of work. She does have some work to do as Pena exposed a lot of weaknesses that the general public either didn't know about or has overlooked for awhile since no one was taking advantage of them. She's plenty talented enough, but she has to put in the time to fix the issues that Pena capitalized on.
Contenders - Holly Holm and Raquel Pennington
This division is honestly pretty tough to project out because beyond a handful of fighters, it's really even. You'll see most women in the division with a UFC record hovering around .500 while being 2-1 or 1-2 in their last 3 appearances. That makes projecting future challengers difficult because there's not much separation in terms of UFC career overall and current win streak. Holly Holm currently sits in the number 2 spot in the rankings and has won 2 in a row. She's looked pretty solid in those fights and with her name value, she may not be more than 1 win away from finding herself in another title fight. Pennington stood out to me as she's 10-5 in the UFC overall and has won 3 in a row. In terms of recent success, she probably has the strongest argument for a title shot. Macy Chiasson on short notice probably isn't quite enough to vault her into that fight, but she could also be one more win away from that next shot. Of course, if Pena defeats Nunes again, then all of the title fights would be fresh matchups, which opens up the match making quite a bit. If Nunes wins and they don't go for the immediate trilogy, then maybe they try to look for more fresh matchups for her.
Up and Comers - Irene Aldana and Ketlen Vieira
The names to pick from in this division are pretty thin, so both of my up and comers come from inside the top 5. However, these are rankings that include Lina Lansberg at 11 who hasn't fought in 2 years and hasn't won since 2019 and Norma Dumont at 15 who has never successfully made bantamweight in the UFC, so this is what we're dealing with. Aldana looked poised to be earning her own title shot until she lost to Holly Holm in pretty dominant fashion. She's since gotten back in the win column and probably isn't more than 2 wins away from a title shot. Honestly, the only reason she isn't in the contenders category is because of her resume. She had that opportunity against Holm and she probably won't be able to jump her in line unless the rematch comes before Holm's shot. Vieira is coming off of what is probably the biggest win of her career against Miesha Tate. Vieira looked great in that fight and looks like someone who could really be a problem in this division sometime in the future. The future could be sooner than later given how high Vieira has already risen and she could find herself fighting for a title as soon as the latter part of 2022.
Wild Cards - Valentina Shevchenko, Miesha Tate, and Germaine de Randamie
Valentina Shevchenko is probably a name you expected given that I mentioned her potentially moving up in yesterday's post. What is interesting for her is that I don't think it matters who has the belt. No matter who holds the belt, it's only a matter of time until she tries to become double champ. I don't need to explain why Valentina is qualified and I think everyone would be excited to see her try for gold against Amanda or Julianna Pena. Whenever Valentina decides she wants that shot, I assume she jumps to the top of the list. Miesha Tate makes this list for me because I think the UFC wants to push her given her name, but she took a step back with her loss to Ketlen Vieira. I put her in the wild card section because whether she wants to continue her career or not is a little up in the air. She retired once and may decide to walk away again. She has a life and doesn't need this sport the way that some others do. The final one here is Germaine de Randamie. She should probably be a contender, but she's already lost to Amanda twice. If Amanda regains her title, de Randamie probably isn't super high on the list of fights that the UFC wants to make. If Pena wins again, de Randamie is probably the next fight unless Shevchenko wants the fight. The main thing working against de Randamie is that she's just not active enough. She's 7-2 in the UFC and made her promotional debut in 2013. That's basically 1 fight a year. It's hard to force your way back into the title conversation when you're just not fighting very often. We're seeing Max Holloway force a trilogy where he lost the first 2 because he has consistently defeated highly regarded fighters. Germaine de Randamie isn't doing that because she's only fought once since her second lost to Amanda, which was a win over Julianna Pena back in October of 2020. She has the skills, but I think she's falling out of favor and her name doesn't carry the weight because she's just not competing often enough.
Prospects - Karol Rosa, Jessica-Rose Clark, and Julia Avila
Probably reaching a bit here, but I really like what these women bring to the table. Karol Rosa is 4-0 in the UFC and has shown some legitimate skills. She needs a step up in competition and she'll be getting that in her next fight against Sara McMann. She's not much of a finisher, but she finds ways to win and go be working her way into the top 8 or so pretty soon. Julia Avila is 3-1 in the UFC and has shown an ability to finish fights. She also needs that step up in competition, but that will come in time. She needs a steady progression and will find herself fighting tougher and tougher opponents each time out. She's not ready yet, but she's shown the skills to be a future contender as long as her development continues. Jessica-Rose Clark is 4-2 in the UFC and probably the farthest away from contention of the three I have listed. I just like what I've seen from her at times. She doesn't do anything extremely well, but she's shown a solid base everywhere and has plenty of room for growth. She has some solid wins already and she's on a nice 2 fight win streak. If she continues this progression I think she could find herself in the rankings by the end of 2022 and potentially start making some real noise in 2023.
What do you guys think about women's bantamweight for this year? We're all looking forward to Nunes vs Pena II, but where are we left after that? Is Holly Holm poised for another title shot? Can Ketlen Vieira rise up and take that spot from her? When will Valentina Shevchenko decide to make a run at double champ status? What do we do with Germaine de Randamie if Pena retains the title? Who are some future stars or potential challengers in this division? Am I overlooking some of the fighters I didn't mention? Leave any and all thoughts below and thanks for reading. Have a good one and come back tomorrow for men's flyweight.
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