With excellent grapplers featuring up and down the four female weight classes in the promotion, it only seems like a matter of time before one of them claims gold in the octagon.
Here are the five best female grapplers in the UFC right now.
#5. Tatiana Suarez – UFC strawweight contender
Tatiana Suarez is the UFC’s forgotten fighter right now, as she hasn’t competed in the octagon since her 2019 win over Nina Nunes. Still, given that she plans to return later this year, leaving her off any list of the promotion’s best female grapplers is impossible.
A stellar amateur wrestler who was once in contention for the 2012 Olympics before she was derailed by a bout of thyroid cancer, Suarez burst onto the scene in 2016 by winning the 23rd series of The Ultimate Fighter and looked to be well on her way to a title shot before suffering a neck injury in 2019.
During her five octagon wins, though, she showed incredible grappling skills – dispatching Alexa Grasso and Amanda Cooper via submission with ease – but more to the point, she thoroughly dominated future strawweight champ Carla Esparza, taking her down with little difficulty and punishing her there en route to a third-round TKO.
Given Esparza’s own high standing when it comes to grappling skills, there’s an argument that Suarez should be ranked higher on this list, but given her inactivity, it’d be tricky to justify.
Despite this, it’s clear that should she return in the same kind of form she left off on, she’ll be an instant title contender at either 115lbs or 125lbs.
#4. Valentina Shevchenko – UFC flyweight champion
Reigning UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko is better known for her kickboxing skills than anything else, but it’s also hard to dispute her excellence as a grappler.
‘The Bullet’ initially rose up the ladder as a bantamweight fighter. During her time at 135lbs, she was able to submit future champion Julianna Pena – a great grappler in her own right - with an armbar from the bottom, showing that she was far more than a striker.
Since moving to 125lbs, meanwhile, she has comfortably dominated Priscila Cachoeira and Joanna Jedrzejczyk on the ground and has finished the likes of Katlyn Chookagian and Jessica Andrade on the mat with some vicious ground-and-pound.
Sure, it’s true that the native of Kyrgyzstan is more comfortable on her feet – and in fact, she found herself in danger on the ground for the first time in her most recent fight – but in general, she tends to use the mat as a place to dominate and finish her opponents.
Essentially, Shevchenko is a fighter with no real weaknesses, meaning that it should hardly be a surprise that she’s also one of the best female grapplers in the UFC as well as the best strikers too.
#3. Taila Santos – UFC flyweight contender
Although she was more well-known as a striker prior to joining the UFC in 2019, it’s probably fair to suggest that during her time in the octagon, Taila Santos has done more than enough to establish herself as one of the best female grapplers in the promotion.
The Brazilian has won four of her six outings in the octagon as a flyweight, with her only true loss coming in her debut against Mara Romero Borella – a fight that saw her lose more due to inactivity than anything else.
Outside of that, though, she’s been dominant and has largely used her ground game to dispatch her opponents, including Molly McCann, Roxanne Modafferi, and Joanne Wood.
However, while those victories were all impressive, her showing against reigning flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko proved how great her grappling skills are.
Santos dominated ‘The Bullet’ on the mat for three of the five rounds, coming close to submitting her with rear naked chokes. Many fans believed she’d done enough to deserve a victory, even if she came away on the wrong end of a split decision.
Given the grappling talent of Shevchenko herself, any fighter able to come out on top of exchanges on the ground with her is clearly great. If a rematch is booked in the future, as is expected, it’ll be fascinating to see if Santos can finish the job.
#2. Carla Esparza – UFC strawweight champion
While she’s not the greatest grappler in terms of her submission threat and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it’s hard to argue that Carla Esparza’s wrestling doesn’t make her one of the most effective female fighters on the ground in the UFC right now.
‘The Cookie Monster’, who regained the strawweight title in somewhat of an upset against Rose Namajunas earlier this year, isn’t renowned as the most exciting fighter to watch, but there’s no denying her effectiveness.
With a stellar overall record of 19-6, Esparza’s striking has definitely improved over her tenure in the octagon, but her wrestling, takedowns, and ground control remain her biggest weapons.
Remarkably, across 14 bouts in the UFC, ‘The Cookie Monster’ has only failed to take down one opponent – powerful wrestler Tatiana Suarez. When you consider she’s outgrappled the likes of Marina Rodriguez, Namajunas, and Michelle Waterson, it’s hard not to be impressed.
How much longer Esparza can keep her run going remains to be seen, especially as she’s now 34 years old, but it’s definitely fair to say that she belongs near the top of any list of female grapplers currently operating in the octagon.
#1. Mackenzie Dern – UFC strawweight contender
Given that she holds a reputation as one of the greatest female Brazilian jiu-jitsu artists of all time, with a lengthy list of accolades in the sport, it should hardly come as a surprise that Mackenzie Dern is widely considered the best female grappler in the UFC right now.
In her early days with the promotion, it didn’t really seem like she’d be able to make her phenomenal submission skills work all that well in the octagon. Largely new to MMA when she made her debut, she struggled to take down opponent Ashley Yoder and only won via decision.
Since then, her striking skills and takedowns have improved leaps and bounds, and – like other brilliant jiu-jitsu aces like Demian Maia and Charles Oliveira before her – that’s allowed her to really unleash her submission skills.
Dern has now won a total of seven fights inside the octagon, with four of those wins coming via a variety of submissions. More to the point, she hasn’t been fighting scrubs, either, as she’s dispatched tricky veterans like Nina Nunes, Randa Markos, and Tecia Torres.
Watch her fight against Nina Nunes below:
Can Dern’s skills take her all the way to the strawweight title? Only time will tell, but if she can defeat Yan Xiaonan next weekend, then she should be on the cusp of a title shot – and with her grappling skills, it wouldn’t be a shock to see her pull it off.
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