With no card this past week, we are going to need some more creative posts to fill out most of the week. I have some pretty important personal things happening this week, so I need some ideas that I can get out a little more quickly without having to do too much research and put in a ton of time. I was thinking about just going the week without posting, but I figured you guys would rather have some shorter, simpler posts than nothing at all, so I'll be doing some refinement to my pound for pound rankings. We're going to start with the women because I think that is how I did it at the year end. I know it isn't truly the mid point of the year, but circumstances are taking most of my time away from this for the rest of the week. I'll include the movement up or down for any fighters who change spots as well. As a reminder, the rules for this was that someone had to be on the schedule during 2021 and I'll now extend that to 2022. If someone was on the schedule in any way, even if the fight got cancelled, they are eligible for the list. If someone wasn't on the schedule last year and still hasn't been this year, they won't be on this list.
1. Valentina Shevchenko (no movement)
Valentina hasn't fought yet in 2022, but she's on the schedule in couple of weeks and I expect her to retain her title without too much of an issue. I think she is the clear owner of this spot on most people's list and it is rightfully earned. She's as well rounded as anyone and she may very well be the best pound for pound fighter in the world in any promotion and regardless of gender.
2. Amanda Nunes (Up 1 spot)
Nunes moves up one spot after another fighter falls, but we'll get to that fighter later. Nunes saw herself fall a bit coming into the year after her loss to Julianna Pena, but she is still one of the best fighters in the world. She's probably the women's MMA GOAT and one loss didn't change that in my mind. Julianna Pena was able to expose a lot of weaknesses that we hadn't seen exposed in quite awhile, but they were obviously always there. She's going to have to tighten some of those issues up if she wants her belt back, but I think she will put on a better performance when we see her in July.
3. Julianna Pena (Up 1 spot)
Pena hasn't fought since her upset win over Amanda Nunes, but finds herself up a spot as well. She really proved something in that fight and backed up a lot of the talking she did. I'm half way tempted to move her up to the number two spot, but I just couldn't do it quite yet. The reason I wanted to is that I believe that exact game plan could work again. She's going to have to walk through Nunes' power again, which is certainly easier said than done, but she's done it before. If she can push a pace and absorb the damage, I could see her wearing Nunes out again and getting the win a second time. If she does that, she will be the new biggest star in the sport. I'm really looking forward to that fight.
4. Carla Esparza (Up 3 spots)
Esparza makes a big jump after getting the upset win over Rose Namajunas to become the strawweight champion. Carla has some of the best wrestling across any women's division and is well deserving of her spot. Her next defense may be a tough matchup for her, but that doesn't change anything right now. She's one of the best in women's MMA and I'm glad that she got to have the belt again before she ends up walking away from the sport.
5. Marina Rodriguez (Up 1 spot)
I might get some blow back on this one, but I really like Rodriguez. Her striking is just fantastic and I think she is really coming into her own. She had a really close fight with Yan Xiaonan, but she came out of that fight the winner and that has her up a spot in my rankings. I'm not sure when her next outing will be or who the opponent will be, but I think she is probably a fight away from a title shot.
6. Zhang Weili (Down 1 spot)
Weili ends up dropping a spot, but she can move right back up with a win in a couple of weeks. She got jumped by Marina after he big win, but if she were to win in Singapore, she would be in line for the title shot against Carla in my estimation. Zhang has really good striking and she's big and powerful for the division. She did lose twice to Rose, but I thought she won that second fight in real time.
7. Rose Namajunas (Down 5 spots)
Maybe this is a bit extreme, but that last performance from Rose wasn't a good one. What was more worrisome for me is that she didn't recognize how close the fight was in real time and even now doesn't seem to understand how she could've lost. I thought Rose lost the fight to Zhang and now she did lose to Carla. Her defensive grappling needs a lot of work and she wasn't able to get to her strikes against Carla even with nothing happening. Her striking was even with Zhang in the second fight except Weili clearly had more power and was hurting Rose at times. I may be overreacting, but I just really didn't like what I saw. Given how Rose doesn't really seem like she likes fighting all that much, it is hard to say how she bounces back.
8. Jessica Andrade (no movement)
Andrade picked up a standing arm triangle submission win over Amanda Lemos this year, but she's going to maintain her spot here at 8. Lemos was enough of a step down in competition that I can't bump her up over Rose or Zhang, but she's still really good. She is what she is and she's not what she's not, but when she's doing what she wants, she's a hard fighter to stop. I think she is a viable contender maybe in 3 different weight classes as well.
9. Yan Xiaonan (no movement)
Yan lost her only fight since my last P4P post, but it was a really close decision. I thought she may actually get the nod in that fight. Her fight with Marina Rodriguez was a great one and I don't think Yan lost any stock in that fight. She's a great striker, but she just needs to round her game out a bit more. She struggles at times in the grappling and doesn't have enough ways to finish fights, which does hurt her a bit, but she's still incredibly dangerous.
10. Joanna Jedrzejczyk (not previously ranked)
Joanna being on the books for UFC 275 means that she can get into my rankings for the first time. Her placement is a bit difficult just because she hasn't been active and we don't know much about how she's aged. I'm sure she's been training and is coming into this fight well prepared, but with so much time off at her age, it is hard to say actually how she'll look. Joanna is only 34, so she's not in exactly the same situation as Holly Holm was a couple of weeks ago, but she's also been in a lot of fights and taken a lot of damage over the course of her career. I think this is the highest that I can have her without having seen her in so long.
11. Katlyn Chookagian (no movement)
This is the part of the list where it gets tough for me. I am a tad down on Chookagian after her last fight that I thought she lost even though she got the decision win. She was out grappled by Amanda Ribas who took the fight on short notice coming up from strawweight. Ribas isn't particularly big for 115, so the fact that Chookagian was out muscled by her in some clinch exchanges is worrisome. However, Chook is beating everyone at 125 who isn't Valentina, so she demands some respect. At some point, she's going to earn that rematch regardless of if anyone wants to see it or not and I don't think we're too far off of that.
12. Ketlen Vieira (no movement)
Vieira has a lot in common with what I just said about Chookagian. She's coming off of a win even though I thought she lost the fight and it wasn't a particularly impressive one. What keeps her on this list is that he potential is so clear. She has powerful striking and her grappling is really good as well. Her cardio is her main thing holding her back right now though. Even though her technical striking isn't anything to write home about, if she were able to throw more volume, it wouldn't matter nearly as much. Vieira is doing enough to get wins, but she has to improve her cardio if she's going to really challenge for the title.
13. Manon Fiorot (not previously ranked)
I wasn't ready to put Fiorot in my rankings at the end of last year, but her win over Jennifer Maia proved that she's ready. I thought about putting her as high as 11, but I think Vieira and Chookagian just have too large of a body of work for me to push Fiorot past them at this point. Her range striking may be the best in the division besides Valentina though and I think she may be in a position for a title shot potentially by the end of the year. She's fighting Chookagian in September and a win there would have her easily as the number one contender.
14. MacKenzie Dern (Down 1 spot)
Unfortunately, Dern does come down a spot, but with Joanna needing to come into the rankings, it isn't moving down for anything she did necessarily. Dern picked up a really nice win over Tecia Torres and showed us that her BJJ is still some of the best in the entire sport, man or woman. The reason I couldn't bump up Dern any farther is I feel like everyone above her has had an equal or more impressive win since. I just need to see more from Dern's wrestling before I am ready to say that she's ready for a title shot. Her striking has improved to a point where it is sufficient, but she needs to add to her ability to actually get the fight down to allow her BJJ to take over.
15. Lauren Murphy (Down 1 spot)
This was a tough one, but I gave Murphy the slight edge for the last spot. She doesn't have the most natural athleticism or speed, but she gets the most out of what she has. She fights a tough, gritty style and I gave her this spot because I think she is more all around than the others I was considering. Murphy makes the fight dirty in the clinch and is willing to trade on the feet where she has at least respectable power for the division. We haven't seen her in a little bit now, but she's on the schedule to fight Miesha Tate, which is a matchup that I'm interested to see for her.
I want to take a moment to address the two fighters who fell off the list. The first of which is Holly Holm. I left Holly off because I was really discouraged by her last performance even though I thought she won. I can't get it out of my head that what we saw just wasn't anywhere close to the old Holly Holm. Her volume was even lower than we have come to expect and she looked noticeably slower. She wasn't able to land her shots the way she has in the past and her defense seemed to suffer significantly. She was getting hit much more easily than she had in the past and was effected by a lot of those shots as well. Maybe I'm being harsh on her, but she just didn't look like herself. Taila Santos also falls off the list and for her it was more a matter of circumstance. Joanna and Fiorot needed to be added to the list and she was in the last spot, so she fell out of the top 15 for me. She is still really powerful with solid submission ability, but her output and cardio worries me, especially going up against Valentina. Casey O'Neill, Irene Aldana, and Viviane Araujo are just on the outside looking in as well. Araujo picked up a really nice win against Andrea Lee that has her stock by up. O'Neill got the win over Roxi in her retirement fight which was certainly the biggest win over her career, but just not quite enough to get onto this list and with her injury, she probably won't be able to get onto the year end version either. We haven't seen Aldana since her disappointing loss to Holly Holm that had me really down on her. I'm feeling better about her as that fight has gotten farther away, but we need to see her fight again. The last time we saw her, she got the knockout win, but she missed weight badly so, I'm not sure where she really ranks right now.
What do you guys think? What are your rankings? Who do I have too high? Who do I have too low? Leave any and all thoughts and comments below. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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