Julianna Pena claimed our Upset of the Year award for 2021, and with good reason. But there was another name who won the vote as our female Fighter of the Year this year. She also gave us a historic first in MMA, or well at least in the UFC.
Fighter of the Year 2021: Female
Jay Anderson: Thug Rose beat Weili Zhang twice this year. Need I say more? Okay, I will. She also became the first female UFC fighter to reclaim a title. A little bit of MMA history. Julianna Pena was a runner up, and could very well be in the running next year. Kayla Harrison gets an honorable mention as well, as the biggest name in female MMA outside the UFC at the moment.
Farzin Vousoughian: Rose Namajunas became the first female fighter in UFC history to capture the same belt twice. After two impressive victories over Weili Zhang, she’s proving to be the best strawweight of all time.
Eddie Law: Could be recency bias, and probably should have gone Rose Namajunas or Valentina Shevchenko here, but Pena defeated the undisputed Women’s MMA GOAT. Ridiculed throughout the build-up, doubted and ignored as she told anyone that would listen how the fight would go, she did exactly what she said she would do and tapped ‘The Lioness’ with an RNC or “Lion-Killer” choke. Love her or hate her, that was badass.
Alex Behunin: Kayla Harrison – Harrison fought four times in 2021, dominating all of her opponents eventually winning the 2021 PFL tournament. She is also the biggest free agent on the market.
Gabriel Gonzalez: Valentina Shevchenko. It would have once again been a toss up between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, but as only one ends the year without losing then the award can only go to “Bullet.” Though she is a ways behind him in terms of overall wins, she is notably tied with Kamaru Usman for consecutive title defenses. Considering that she now has only new up-and-comers to turn her sights on next in 2022, it’s safe to say that Shevchenko has hit the bullseye as the Female Fighter of the Year.
Justin Gibbons: Valentina Shevchenko is my Female Fighter of the Year. The blueprint to beat Valentina seems to be a hard one to follow as she continued to dominate her opponents in 2021.
Michael Lynch: Julianna Pena is the female Fighter of the Year, for beating the GOAT.
Josh Evanoff: Julianna Pena. Pena began the year as a lightly regarded bantamweight, but ended the year going 2-0 as the women’s 135 pound champion after one of the biggest upsets of all time.
Bryson Hester: My pick for female fighter of the year is easily Thug Rose. Rose was able to regain her 115lb belt by KO’ing one of the scariest looking UFC strawweights in Zhang Weili who entered the fight with a stunning 21-1 pro MMA record. Rose ended the year with a five round spit decision win over Zhang, proving that her first round KO in April was no fluke.
Shawn Bitter: Rose Namajunas is my female fighter of the year. She reclaimed her strawweight title against Weili Zhang with a head kick knockout in a little over a minute. She then later rematched Zhang in what was a wonderful performance and an overall great fight that went five rounds.
Daniel Vreeland: Rose Namajunas. There are a slew of good picks here. The 115, 125, and 135lb UFC champions all went 2-0 this year. There were also some options like Marina Rodriguez who won three fights and looked great doing it. In the end, I think beating Weili Zhang in those two distinctive ways in one year tops the other resumes.
Dan Doherty: Marina Rodriguez. How about the run Rodriguez had in 2021? She was the promotional B-side of three fights against Amanda Ribas, Michelle Waterson, and Mackenzie Dern and won them all. This was a fighter who started her UFC run with a weird 2-1-2 record then put it all together this year. Her knockout against Ribas was stunning.
End Result: Thug Rose! Thug Rose! This is the second time Namajunas has won the female Fighter of the Year honor, the first coming back in 2017.
