Just when you thought women’s MMA in the UFC was becoming predictable, 2017 decided to pull up a few trees and prove us all wrong.
Firstly, the UFC decided to create a 145-pound weight-class. Despite the woman they made the division for wasn’t ready to compete for the title at their chosen date of UFC 208 in February. Cris Cyborg ended up sitting on the sidelines while bantamweights Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie slugged it out for the belt.
De Randamie won a highly contentious decision victory, and promptly surrendered the title rather than fight Cyborg.