On Feb. 11, at UFC 208, the UFC will crown its first ever UFC women’s featherweight champion.
Former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm will fight Germaine de Randamie to crown the inaugural UFC 145-pound champion.
On March 3, at Bellator 174, former Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion Marloes Coenen will fight Julia Budd to crown the first ever women’s featherweight champion in Bellator.
On January 14, at Invicta FC 21, Megan Anderson defeated Charmaine Tweet by TKO to win the Interim Invicta Featherweight Championship.
In less than three months, three of the premier MMA organizations in the world crowned new UFC featherweight champions.
None of these champions will have defeated a champion to become their promotion’s title holder.
The world of MMA has only known one world champion in the women’s featherweight division, Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino.
Justino is the current and inaugural Invicta featherweight champion. She was also the first and only Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion.
Justino is currently serving a temporary suspension from USADA due to testing positive for banned substances.
Invicta created the interim title after Justino was suspended. An interim title for Invicta could have made sense either way due to Justino not defending the title in over a year.
Justino’s last two fights have taken place at a 140-pound catchweight in the UFC. The reason she fought at a catchweight is because the UFC, at the time, did not hold fights in the women’s featherweight division.
So why are three of the premier organizations for MMA creating women’s 145-pound titles when the rightful champion isn’t available?
For Invicta, it made sense because their champion is inactive and there is no way of knowing whether or not their champion would ever fight in the promotion again. For the UFC, they need a belt to put as the main event of a pay-per-view. For Bellator, they’re trying to compete in the growing market of women’s MMA.
Now the question going forward is what are these promotion’s plans with each division?
The UFC has only one women’s featherweight on their roster, Justino. Both Holm and De Randamie competed as bantamweights before being given their upcoming title opportunity.
Holm is a former bantamweight champion. She won the title by knocking out Ronda Rousey. Holm is without a doubt one of the best female fighters in the world, but she’s on a two-fight losing streak. In March, she lost her title by being submitted by Miesha Tate. In July, she lost a decision to Valentina Shevchenko.
De Randamie is on a two-fight win streak as a bantamweight. She is coming off TKO wins over Anna Elmose and Larissa Pacheco. De Randamie is a talented fighter, but she has failed to ever become a top-10 ranked fighter in the bantamweight division. She has fought twice as a featherweight. De Randamie holds a 1-1 record in the weight class.
Holm vs. De Randamie would be an interesting fight in the bantamweight division. It’s a former champion on a losing streak facing an up and coming prospect. However, nothing about this fight suggests it should be for a world championship.
Bellator’s upcoming women’s featherweight title fight doesn’t have much of a claim to crowning a rightful champion either.
Unlike the UFC, Bellator does have 145-pound female fighters on its roster. Bellator currently has nine fighters in its women’s featherweight division.
Just like the UFC’s title fight, Bellator’s title fight features a combatant coming off a loss.
Coenen is a longtime veteran of the women’s featherweight division. Overall, she is arguably the second best fighter to regularly compete in the weight class. However, she is coming off a submission loss to Alexis Dufresne in May.
Granted Dufresne did miss weight for their fight. She actually missed weight for her last three fights. However, Dufresne’s previous fight was one of the most one-sided UFC fights in history when she lost to Marion Reneau.
Coenen’s recent history is not that of someone who should be fighting for a championship in a major MMA promotion.
Budd, however, is deserving of a title shot. She is on a seven-fight win streak and has a win over De Randamie. She has a 9-2 record with her only losses coming against Rousey and current UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes.
Invicta doesn’t deserve the same criticism UFC or Bellator receives. Invicta’s purpose is to grow women’s MMA. They have the largest women’s featherweight roster with 14.
Both Bellator and Invicta have small rosters of talent that have potential. However, it could be hard to build a division with three promotions competing for talent.
The UFC has yet to sign any featherweights. It seems that the UFC may rely on bantamweights moving up in weight. However, there aren’t many UFC women bantamweights clamoring to move up to featherweight. It seems that the UFC women just see the featherweight title as a way to become a champion in two weight classes, a la Conor McGregor.
The women’s featherweight division is clearly shallow. Especially, with three major promotions trying to sign the best in the world.
This wouldn’t be the first time the UFC has grown a division once they’ve crowned a champion. Flyweight is a perfect example of a division that barely existed before the UFC started scheduling fights in the weight class.
However, one potential issue is the women’s featherweight division is that it isn’t new. It’s actually the sport’s first major women’s division.
On Aug. 15, 2009, the women’s featherweight division hit the upper echelon of the world of MMA when “Cyborg” fought Gina Carano for the inaugural Strikeforce women’s featherweight title. While many of the women pioneers of the sport started with EliteXC prior to this date, Strikeforce was the first to crown a world champion.
Since that day, “Cyborg” has completely dominated the division. She is currently unbeaten in her last 18 fights. Eight of those wins were in title fights.
The complete history of the women’s featherweight division starts and ends with “Cyborg.” Through 2011, she dominated in Strikeforce. In 2013, after Strikeforce folded, Justino picked up right where she left off and dominated in Invicta.
The women’s featherweight division has been featured in premier MMA organizations for the past decade. However, the division as a whole has never got out of its infant stages of development.
While the old adage, “If they build it, they will come” may be true when it comes to the UFC and Bellator trying to build this division. History tells us, building the women’s 145-pound division is harder than it looks.
