Top 10 most important UFC women’s main events
By Drake Riggs
With Amanda Nunes looking to defend her title for the third time against Raquel Pennington at UFC 224 this Saturday, we took a look at the top 10 most important women’s main events in UFC history
In the short history of MMA, there has been an even shorter history when it comes to women fighting in MMA. More specifically, the UFC.
Since the UFC’s creation of the women’s bantamweight division in 2013, they have provided us with 21 main events going on 22 with UFC 224 this Saturday. The event will be headlined by the defending champion, Amanda Nunes and the first time title challenger, Raquel Pennington.
For Nunes, she’s no stranger to being atop a card in a big fight as this will be her fourth time doing so. But how many of her previous main event matchups make the list of most important UFC women’s main events? Let’s find out.
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10. Rose Namajunas vs Paige VanZant – UFC Fight Night 80, 2015
2015 was a big year for the young rising star from Portland Oregon, Paige VanZant.
Entering the UFC in 2014 with a 3-1 professional record, VanZant would make her debut against a fellow young prospect in Kailin Curran and the two would put on a show as they earned fight of the night honors. VanZant would walk away with a third-round TKO victory that began a three-fight winning streak that carried into 2015.
After followup wins over Felice Herrig and Alex Chambers, the UFC gave VanZant her very first main event appearance which would take place on the first event of 2015’s International Fight Week. Her opponent would be one of the strawweight division’s early staples, Rose Namajunas.
Namajunas was an equally young and interesting prospect but was clearly more established as a fighter as evidenced by her stint on season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter which was the strawweight division’s showcase and introduction into the UFC as their second female division.
Submitting her way to the finals, Namajunas would go on to lose the inaugural strawweight title fight against the No.1 seeded former Invicta FC champion, Carla Esparza. She would redeem herself with a first-round rear-naked-choke victory over fellow TUF 20 contestant, Angela Hill before getting the call to face VanZant in the Fight Night 80 main event.
A win for VanZant very well could have catapulted her right to a title shot if not one win away at the very least. However, the woman known as “Thug” had other ideas.
The fight turned out to be a masterclass and near-perfect performance for the 22-year old, Namajunas. She dominated the fight everywhere it went and landed 8 of her 10 takedown attempts while out-striking VanZant 104-53.
Namajunas didn’t lose a round on route to victory and after several deep submission attempts, VanZant was finally unable to survive any longer as she tapped out to a rear-naked-choke in the fifth round.
This fight acted as just a sneak peak of what the young Colorado native, Namajunas was truly capable of and that despite showing great toughness, VanZant may have been built up a little bit too quickly by her superiors.