5 longest UFC women's title reigns
Since being introduced in 2012, the UFC women’s divisions have drastically improved in depth and overall quality.
Before 2012, the idea of women competing in the promotion seemed very unlikely. Dana White was against it for years, but later changed his mind when Ronda Rousey proved it could be profitable. In the past decade, the promotion has added more female weight classes. They have even had women’s bouts serve as the main event for some of their milestone events.
The addition of more female divisions allowed female fighters an opportunity to find their ideal weight-division. Fighters like Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko have been great in one division and utterly dominant in another. Some recent title reigns have set a high standard for women’s MMA. This list will look at the five longest UFC women’s title reigns.
#5. Former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk (2015 – 2017)
Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s UFC career has made her an all-time great in the sport. She defeated Carla Esparza on March 14th, 2015 to become the new strawweight champion. The division was a new addition to the promotion following TUF season 20 and was quickly established with her title reign. She had the title for a total of 966 days.
The Pole's title reign was historic for the division as she had five title defenses. This was significant as she was one title defense shy of matching Rousey for most women’s title defenses. She was dominant during her reign as four of her defenses saw her earn unanimous decision wins by a wide margin.
Jedrzejczyk’s title reign ended on November 4th, 2017 after a first-round TKO loss to Rose Namajunas. She has since had three title shots but hasn’t been able to add another title to her Hall of Fame worthy resume.