Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Pound-for-Pound Women

1. Amanda Nunes

Nunes is the clear queen of this list, although her selection wasn't unanimous, as I had her and No. 2 Valentina Shevchenko swapping places. Still, at her very best, Nunes attained a level of fighting that no other woman, has, Shevchenko included, and I would have also had her No. 1 prior to her loss against Pena. Nunes is a tremendous threat anywhere a fight goes, with excellent wrestling, arguably the best in her division, fantastic, slick submission skills and brutal ground-and-pound. Of course, her biggest weapon is her fast, technical, and above all, viciously powerful striking, arguably the best in WMMA history at any weight. Nunes' talent for fighting was immediately apparent, scoring a TKO stoppage between the second and third round of highly skilled and far more experienced Vanessa Porto in Brazil before needing just 14 seconds to knock out Julia Budd in Strikeforce, and finishing Germaine de Randamie with ground-and-pound in the opening stanza, two fighters who would have made this list if we expanded it to 15. However, Nunes suffered from cardio woes as well as a certain mental weakness, wilting when an opponent offered significant resistance. Thus, in addition to a submission loss in her pro debut, which is absolutely forgivable, Nunes was stopped by far less skilled fighters in Alexis Davis and Cat Zingano via ground-and-pound, and even dropped a decision to Sarah D'Alelio that wasn't remotely close, with D'Alelio sweeping every round on every card.

After that, however, Nunes moved to American Top Team and went 12-0, a legendary, unprecedented streak that saw her become the greatest ever on almost everyone's list. The only two close fights during that time were against Valentina Shevchenko, already discussed in the previous entry. Everything else was a one-sided beating, and that included many of the other greatest female fighters ever. She knocked out Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm, and even Cris Cyborg in the first round, Cyborg and Rousey succumbing in less than a minute, submitted Sara McMann, Miesha Tate, and Megan Anderson in the first round, obliterated Raquel Pennington before stopping her in the fifth round, delivered a hellacious 25 minute beating to Felicia Spencer, and easily defeated Germaine de Randamie in a rematch with her grappling. Alas, the flaws from her earlier losses were not completely exorcised. In what I consider the second most shocking upset in UFC championship history, surpassing Georges St. Pierre losing by knockout by Matt Serra, and only behind Maurice Smith defeating Mark Coleman, Nunes was submitted in Round 2 by Julianna Pena as a -1100 favorite. Nunes easily dominated the first round, but then showed poor cardio and appeared to give up when the fight got tough. Nunes won the title back in a rematch in a one-sided decision, but she didn't look the same. She fought cautiously and was closely managing her energy, but still couldn't stop Pena, and occasionally got into bad situations. Nunes seems to be clearly past her prime now at 34, but conversely, there is no one to challenge her at 135 pounds, especially since virtually all the new elite talent is at 115 and 125 pounds. It will be interesting to see where her career goes from here and whether she will retain the top spot in future iterations of this list.