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Women fighter ranks
As of April 30, 2012 the women’s mixed martial arts rankings are split up into separate pages by division, to accommodate for future growth of WMMA.
Please visit the ranking pages here:
Featherweight (140 lbs and over)
Atomweight (110 lbs and under)
@David Street: you accidentally pressed paste twice. Interesting list, but I don’t think there’s enough to make a Top 10 out of this if you want to include people who are remotely good. Or even a Top 5. I didn’t look at all 25 profiles though, to be fair.
Anyway you’re talking about Openweight, or really anything above 145 (most of the women you ranked fight at LW or WW). That’s already included in the top division that FightMatrix lists, but I assume you’re aware of that.
Kunitskaya is legit and while I’d be surprised if she couldn’t make 145, I know that’s not where she fights. That’s one fighter.
Amanda Lucas is a can-crushing gimmick and would probably get tapped by Jessica Penne, let alone a Top 10 Bantamweight.
Charmaine Tweet recently dropped to 145 and despite pulling her record up to .500 she still isn’t in the Top 15.
Danielle West is decent but she fights at Featherweight and isn’t quite Top 15 (also I think she just retired but whatever).
Mika Harigai is a professional can who’s natural fighting weight should be 145 maximum (probably 135), even if she fights above that. Her situation is really sad.
I admit those were the only ones I was familiar with off the top of my head.
Lisa McCallam is only 2-0 but she looks interesting. Okay, that’s #2 as far as _potentially_ legitimately skilled LWs. Worth keeping an eye on.
Kerry Barrett is 1-0, with her one win via decision (with 3 minute rounds) over a girl who was 0-0. Barrett has a fight coming up against a Featherweight. Um… I don’t think she’s shown to be more than a warm body yet in the division.
Heather George is an actual 227 lbs. HW (what the fuck). After finding a couple of pictures, she, uh… really needs to lose weight. She’s 2-0 with wins against other anomalies. Would contribute to an Openweight list I suppose?
Yuiga Yuiga appears to be a Featherweight (and another professional can).
I only glanced through the list after this and while it seems like there’s a few legit prospects, it’s paper thin. All of Openweight combined is not even quasi-competitive the way women’s Featherweight is, and Featherweight is in deep disarray right now. Women’s LW has barely reached the embryonic stage, as matches at that weight aren’t super rare anymore at least at the amateur level. Nothing above W155 is even the tiniest bit organized or hierarchical.
I do think W155 will eventually emerge and start to crystalize as a division within the next 5 years or so, particularly if Invicta stays around (Invicta is strengthening Women’s 145 just by promoting it, bringing more larger athletes into WMMA, and W155 might be a division they might at least dip a toe into if the UFC starts picking up more of their existing divisions).