Honorable Mention

Kayla Harrison

Promotion: PFL

Kayla Harrison deserves an honorable mention in this list. Though she lost the PFL Lightweight tournament this year, she did make it to the finals and had 3 impressive wins.

Jéssica Andrade

Promotion: UFC

Jéssica Andrade also gets an honorable mention. She moved down to Strawweight this year and defeated Amanda Lemos to secure the #4 rank in the division.

Top 10 Best Female MMA Fighters

10. Katlyn Chookagian

Promotion: UFC

Katlyn Chookagian is a Professional MMA fighter from the US, and 2022 has been a big year for her. Though it didn’t end in her favor, Chookagian did compete three times, winning her first two fights of the year.

She defeated ranked opponents like Jennifer Maia and Amanda Ribas. However, in her last fight in November, she missed weight and lost her fight as well. She is still ranked #3 in the UFC Flyweight rankings.

9. Irene Aldana

Promotion: UFC

Irene Aldana is a Mexican professional fighter, and in 2022, she made it to the top 5 of the UFC bantamweight rankings.

She only fought once, however, it was an impressive knockout win against Macy Chiasson. She is now ranked #4 and is in a good position for a title shot in 2023.

8. Erin Blanchfield

Promotion: UFC

Erin Blanchfield is an American MMA fighter, and ever since she signed with the UFC, she has remained undefeated.

In 2022, she fought some tough opponents, but was able to dominate them with early submission wins, and made it to the top 10 UFC Flyweight rankings. She defeated JJ Aldrich in June, and Molly McCann in November.

7. Amanda Lemos

Promotion: UFC

Amanda Lemos is a professional MMA fighter from Brazil, and she will be very active in 2022. She fought three times and won two of her fights.

At the beginning of the year, she lost to Jessica Andrade, however, she came back with two back-to-back wins against Michelle Waterson in July, and Marina Rodriguez in November. She is now ranked #3 in the official UFC women’s strawweight rankings.

6. Alexa Grasso

Promotion: UFC

Alexa Grasso is a professional MMA fighter from Mexico, and ever since she moved up to flyweight, she has been on an impressive winning streak.

She fought twice in 2022, and won both of her fights, against ranked opponents, moving up to #5 in the UFC flyweight rankings.

She defeated Joanne Wood via first-round submission in March and came back in October to score a decision win over Viviane Araújo.

5. Larissa Pacheco

Promotion: PFL

Title: PFL Women’s Lightweight Tournament Champion

Larissa Pacheco is a Brazilian Professional MMA fighter. She competes in PFL and has had an incredible year in 2022.

She had four fights in the 2022 PFL women’s lightweight tournament and won all of them. In the final of the tournament, she defeated the former two-time PFL lightweight tournament winner Kayla Harrison.

4. Manon Fiorot

Promotion: UFC

Manon Fiorot is a french MMA fighter, and 2022 has been one of the best years of her career. She fought twice in 2022, against ranked opponents, and defeated both of them to move up to the number 1 contender spot in the UFC flyweight division.

She defeated Jennifer Maia in March and came back to score a win against Katlyn Chookagian in October. She will probably get a chance to fight for the UFC Women’s flyweight title next.

3. Valentina Shevchenko

Promotion: UFC

Title: UFC Women’s Flyweight Champion

Valentina Shevchenko is a professional MMA fighter and former kickboxer from Kyrgyzstan. She is the current UFC women’s Flyweight champion and has had a good year in 2022.

This year, she defended her title for the 7th time. She had a tough fight against Taila Santos but was able to win the fight via decision.

2. Amanda Nunes

Promotion: UFC

Title(s):

• UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion

• UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion

Amanda Nunes is a Brazilian MMA Fighter, and she is widely regarded as the best Female MMA fighter of all time. Last year, Nunes had a devastating upset loss against Juliana Pena, and she lost her bantamweight title.

However, in 2022, she came back and regained her title after easily defeating Juliana Pena in a rematch. Amanda Nunes also holds the UFC women’s featherweight world title and is a 2-time bantamweight champion now.

1. Zhang Weili

Promotion: UFC

Title: UFC Strawweight Champion

Zhang Weili is a professional MMA fighter from China, and she has had an incredible year in 2022. She fought twice, against two former UFC strawweight champions, defeated them, and became the UFC Strawweight world champion as well.

In her first fight of the year, she defeated Joanna Jędrzejczyk and ended the year by defeating Carla Esparza in November to become the world champion.