It’s been nine months since Amanda Nunes last competed in the Octagon.
After putting on yet another five-round clinic, this time on Mexican challenger Irene Aldana, the expectation was that Nunes would call for a rubber match with Julianna Pena before riding off into the sunset for good. Instead, “The GWOAT” shocked the MMA landscape and laid her gloves down in the Octagon. This, in spite of the fact that Nunes was originally tapped to face Pena at UFC 277.
Since that night in Vancouver, Nunes continues to cast a large shadow in women’s MMA. Former flyweight champion and former Nunes challenger Valentina Shevchenko stagnated late into her run with the 125-pound title, then lost the belt and has fought only current champion Alexa Grasso dating back to March 2023. She’ll fight Grasso for the belt yet again this fall after the two coach against one another this summer on The Ultimate Fighter, and given the closely-contested nature of their first two bouts, the UFC odds should reflect something resembling a pick-em.
Meanwhile, strawweight champion Zhang Weili rebounded nicely after a pair of losses to Rose Namajunas, while Namajunas has looked to be a shell of her former self.
All of this begs the question: with Amanda Nunes seemingly gone from the sport, who is carrying her torch in women’s mixed martial arts?
Valentina Shevchenko
Shevchenko had long been the 1A to Nunes’ 1, but even with Nunes stumbling against Pena, she managed to distance herself from Shevchenko when she also became the women’s featherweight champion of the UFC. Of course, to challenge for the featherweight belt, all any 135’er had to do was raise her hand, but the fact that Nunes took the belt off a reputable foe in Cris Cyborg truly cemented her as the “GWOAT.”
Shevchenko’s career will always be intertwined with Nunes’ as the Larry Bird to Nunes’ Magic Johnson. After all, they fought twice, and though Nunes came out on top both times, nobody can deny the skill gap that Shevchenko routinely holds over most of her opponents. However, the gap in talent has seemingly narrowed with “The Bullet” having her Amanda Nunes moment, getting finished by a massive underdog in Grasso to lose the 125-pound championship. That doesn’t mean, however, the 36-year-old can’t recapture the magic when she completes the trilogy against Grasso later this year.
Current UFC Champions
The UFC championship roll call features fighters from different parts of the world who all took unique paths to stardom. Grasso lacks the aura of a Shevchenko, but embodies the underdog spirit after finding a home at flyweight following a .500 run at strawweight. Weili shocked the world when she brought the fight straight to Jessica Andrade, and has since overcome adversity and leveled up several times over. Her knockout power sets her apart..
Raquel Pennington, who took a beating at the hands of Nunes back in 2018, seized the moment earlier this year when she won the vacant UFC women’s bantamweight title in Anaheim. She is similar to Grasso in that she lacks an aura, as well as a magnetic personality. However, she does embody Nunes’ winning mentality as a victor in each of her last six fights. If she does end up fighting Pena next, she figures to match up well stylistically with her former TUF teammate, but it’s tough to say if she’ll ever be able to measure up to Nunes, particularly when considering how their fight from six years ago turned out.
Dakota Ditcheva
The name that has been on the tip of every MMA fan’s tongue is none other than Dakota Ditcheva. And although she’s still just 25, Ditcheva may be the fighter that embodies the best parts of not only Nunes, but also Shevchenko. She is dominant, having finished all but one of her fights. She is also versatile. Though she comes from a background in Muay Thai, Ditcheva has developed an offensive grappling game that has only made her an even tougher puzzle for opposing fighters to solve.
As far as carrying Nunes’ torch goes, Ditcheva lacks two things that are correctable over time: strength of schedule, and platform. In theory, she’s on a good platform. The recent union between PFL and Bellator means that PFL is now the No. 2 MMA promotion in the world. As a member of PFL, she’ll also be fighting on ESPN+ going forward, so it may not be long before she steps out of the one-time “champ-champ’s” shadow.
Kayla Harrison
In Kayla Harrison, MMA fans have the wild card. Harrison had long called for a superfight with her former training partner, but she repeatedly re-upped with the PFL while Nunes continued to dominate the UFC ranks.
There were also questions as to whether or not Harrison could make 135 pounds. She’ll look to silence the critics at UFC 300 when she faces Holly Holm in a legacy fight for women’s MMA. Nobody can deny her talent or mindset, however, and that could make her a superstar in this sport yet, nevermind carrying Nunes’ figurative torch.
