Where Has WMMA Gone?

I Miss Invicta

^{Lisa Verzosa bled buckets for Invicta. Do right by her}

I think women’s MMA, at least in America, is on the brink of extinction. Look, I realize the last thing I wrote was a screed about how UFC’s greed has compromised fighter safety and now I’m here talking about the demise of an entire sub-section of MMA. I don’t want to focus on doom and gloom, but god damn if I don’t have eyes to see what’s happening in front of my face.

UFC gutted the Featherweight division years ago and is in the process of doing the same to Bantamweight. Kayla Harrison has been out of action for over a year, the title sitting idle that entire time. Between that bout in June and the expected fight between Harrison and Amanda Nunes, there have been 31 Women’s Bantamweight fights booked (Technically 28, with 3 more upcoming between now and the November 14 date of Harrison vs Nunes). Thirty-one fights across 18 months, roughly 75 weeks. Out of those 31 bouts, a grand total of FOUR were allowed to grace the main card. I know the point of UFC is to simply throw meat into the grinder, but god damn, how can anyone in a division expect to achieve upward momentum if they not only don’t get fights booked, but don’t get them booked in prominent card placements. Oh, also of those 31 fights, one was on a numbered event. Granted, that specific fight was on the prelims, but at least there was potentially some additional thought put into that one. Obviously nothing actually came of that bout, which saw Yana Santos defeat Macy Chiasson in October 2025. Since then, Chiasson fought in February, while Yana is only returning to the cage at the end of October 2026. Hell, out of the fighters with multiple bouts in this time frame, Melissa Croden has seen the most action, with four fights, going 2-2. A few others have 3 bouts, while Priscilla Cachoeira will hit four in November, having gone 0-3.

I should also mention that the prevailing theory about Harrison vs Nunes is that both women will promptly (re-)retire after the fight is over, vacating the belt. Good thing the top four contenders who are on a combined 18-fight winning streak, have a grand total of two fights on main cards during said streak. So UFC is really well prepared for either a challenger emerging to face the winner of Harrison vs Nunes should they stick around, or for having two credible, fan-known contenders when they both inevitably hang up the gloves.

Flyweight is just barely doing slightly better. Long time champ and Totally Not a Spy, Valentina Shevchenko was recently stripped of her belt due to injury and a new champion was crowned when Natalia Silva took on Wang Cong. Look, I personally don’t care for Shevchenko (Mostly because of her pervert fans), but she was done dirty here. There have been other champs out for longer who get to sit at home and keep the big gold C next to their name, while she is forced to drop the title. Again, I realize UFC simply Does Whatever and there is no rubric or logic behind these types of decisions, other than needing another championship belt on the numbered event poster, but my decroded brain wants just a crumb of consistency.

I don’t begrudge Silva’s spot in the title match, she probably should have been next in line to face Val, but Wang Cong’s appearance makes less sense. When asked about Cong’s bona fides, Dana White proceeded to list Silva’s accomplishments. Good job at knowing who the fighters are and why they are in the fights they have been booked in, Promotion Genius. To her credit, Wang Cong does hold a victory over Shevchenko in kickboxing. Ten years ago. Hey, worked for Alex Pereira against Israel Adesanya, should work every other time, too!

To the division’s credit, Flyweight does get booked a bit more regularly, though there’s still glaring issues. Erin Blanchfield had a 8-1 UFC record with wins over two former (Strawweight) champions, and despite being exceedingly available when Silva vs Cong was announced as well as ranked in the top 5, she was skipped for the #8 Cong. Of course, the problem has since sorted itself out, with Jasmine Jasudavicius defeating Blanchfield recently.

Strawweight perhaps appears outwardly healthy, but there is a deep rot at its core. Zhang Weili was the long time champion, and vacated the belt to challenge Valentina Shevchenko in November 2025. She discovered she was too small, and lost the fight. Since then, Zhang hasn’t had a return bout booked. Is she slowly shaving off the extra muscle and weight she added to move up to Flyweight? Is she locked deep in the bowels of the Zuffa Torture Dungeon and must fight past 999 identical cornfed Iowan wrestleboxers named Chunt Bruzzkley? Did she come to the wise conclusion that MMA as a whole is a morally decrepit pursuit and is instead opting to become a professional Lifter Upper of Large Things? The world may never know.

Anyway, due to Zhang’s imposed sabbatical, a new champion had to be crowned. Enter Mackenzie Dern. Not since the invention of Frogger have we seen someone so deftly dodge credible threats en route to hand picked matchups. Dern faced Virna Jandiroba, someone she had already beat, winning the title in a match that felt perfunctory. The top of the division is also competing against each other, developing credible challengers, which in this era of UFC feels shockingly refreshing.

What’s the Rest of the North American WMMA Scene Looking Like?

Outside of the UFC, there’s PFL, or maybe PFL-MVP, depending on how post-merger branding goes. They’ve got a decent Flyweight division, though Liz Carmouche, one of their top contenders, regularly asks for PFl to institute a Bantamweight division because she’s in her 40s and is tired of cutting so much weight. Liz might have finally been caught by the Inexorable Onward March of Time and Entropy, recently dropping a decision to Jena Bishop for the inaugural Flyweight title now that PFL has ditched the season-to-season format. The champion-in-waiting, Dakota Ditcheva is undefeated and has finished nearly everyone she’s faced, which will make the upcoming title fight pretty interesting. Unfortunately, Ditcheva does have wins over a significant percentage of the remaining ranked Flyweights on the roster.

The real crux of this piece is Invicta Fighting Championships. Their last event was in May 2025. There have been several statements that a new slate of events will be coming soon. Those vague, nebulous deadlines have come and gone with no events taking place, let alone being announced in the ephemera. Sadly, even Invicta’s partnership with Anthem Entertainment hasn’t borne recent fruit. Though I suppose the same company that is in charge of TNA can’t be expected to run another organization well when they haven’t gotten the first one right in over a decade.

The best home for Womens MMA in North America looks to be shuttered. As one of UFC’s prominent feeder organizations, Invicta’s demise has a huge knock-on effect. Gone are the days of a fighter winning a title in Invicta, mulling things over for a few months, and then accepting a middling offer from UFC, vacating the belt. While chaotic and disruptive to Invicta, this process at least gave UFC established, skilled fighters to bolster the roster. Now, you have former champion Tina Black having to slog through The Ultimate Fighter en route to winning the no-longer announced six-figure UFC contract and large hunk of glass.

There’s a lot that makes Invicta great that you don’t really get in UFC. Getting in on the ground floor of a fighter and following her career as she grows and develops skills is always fun to watch. Equally cool is seeing obviously special fighters roll through and just wallop opponents en route to moving up to new challenges.

While there’s cases like future UFC champs Rose Namajunas and Alexa Grasso coming in at 21 and looking exceptional, but equally fun are seasoned veterans on a second go around, like Angela Hill or Tanya Evinger being dominant champions. Or people like Emily Ducote, who was just slightly better than most of her Invicta competition, but just slightly worse than her UFC opponents that I would have personally preferred to see her stay in Invicta and rack up cool finishes.

The other major issue with Invicta gone is that natural Atomweights are even more adrift than they were in the past. Countless 105ers have fallen victim to the siren song of UFC where they fight up a division despite being ridiculously undersized. At least Invicta gave them a chance to compete on an even playing field. Imagine that, two fighters of roughly the same build competing against one another without one having the equivalent of a division-and-a-half size advantage. I said yep, what a concept!

With Invicta gone, UFC simply takes the fighters who would have filled out Invicta’s prelims for a few cards and shunts them onto the Contender Series, though very sporadically.

How Are Things Going Outside North America?

Across the Pacific, ONE Championship has almost completely shuttered all MMA divisions in favor of kickboxing and Muay Thai, limiting the opportunities for fighters not named Stamp Fairtex. Hell, kickboxing child Smila Sundell recently competed on the Contender Series, defeating Alex Pereira’s sister, so even the kickboxers are fleeing Chatri’s cold grip.

RIZIN is at least making an effort, but its global reach isn’t as strong. They’ve got Atomweights who are very Super. But ultimately, we’re all just waiting for Seika Izawa to return from maternity leave to armbar everyone in her path again.

What, then, is to be done about the state of Women’s MMA?

MVP made a big splash with Ronda Rousey’s return for a clear cash grab, but other than a For Reals this Time, It’s the Last One for Both of ‘Em double retirement fight between her and Cris Cyborg, there really isn’t another matchup for her that makes sense.

Scott Coker’s Ki MMA could step in and gather up young fighters, but he’s pretty clearly going to burn through his initial investment capital very quickly with his idea of nineteen simultaneous regional tournaments culminating in the winners facing off in a mega Grand Prix. Maybe he could sign Fedor’s daughter, though. Yes, I know he’s focusing on Men’s Featherweight to start. He’ll still probably sign Fedor’s daughter.

UFC could turn things around by two simple actions: create an Atomweight division, and actually give a shit about featuring WMMA. When one division shows up every third card, and only on the prelims, it pretty openly says to fans “these fights don’t matter, there will be no upward movement by the winners, don’t bother committing anything you see here to memory”. Hell, pretend to care for a little bit and maybe you’ll actually start to care after faking it for long enough.

RIZIN, you’re cool, keep doing you, even if I’m too old and tired to watch you these days. I will keep up with the Super Atomweight tournament by reading results and hoping that a GIF on social media lasts long enough for me to see it before being copyright struck.

ONE, just accept the fact that you are not an MMA promotion any more and stop lying to everyone. Also, I’m still mad at how you treated Seo Hee Ham in the past.

GFL, you aren’t even real, get out of this conversation. Let Holly Holm go fight Rousey again, or something. Between you and Invicta, you’re even less likely to hold an event.

Invicta, please come back. You are the only hope we have in this cruel, terrible world. Someone ask Hannibal Burress if he wants to fund them again. I need somewhere that Angela Hill can earn $100K and have the freedom to cosplay at weigh-ins. I need Tanya Evinger looking like the most divorced midwesterner, spending her fight purse on smokes and lotto tickets. This would save me, spiritually, mentally, emotionally.