5 of the best female fighters that never fought in the UFC

Once UFC President Dana white said women will never fight in the octagon, as long as it is in the promotion. But eventually he changed his mind, and now girl soldiers are an integral part of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

However, not all of the strongest women MMA tried his hand in the UFC. And this is largely because their best years were spent before Ronda rousey changed all that.

Sport.ua presents the top five iconic fighters female who was never able to set foot in the octagon.

Tara LAROSA

Larose career in MMA started in 2002, and she managed to fight many promotions. Her best years fell on the period from 2004 to 2009, when she seemed invincible, having won 15 games in a row. During this race she has won three titles, including BodogFight belt at Bantamweight, and defeated such rivals as Roxanne Modafferi, Julie Kedzie, Julia Berezikova, Basler of shayna and Alexis Davis.

In 2013, when Larosa was already far from his best today, she had the chance to get into the UFC. She became a member of the female season of The Ultimate Fighter, where the trainers were Ronda rousey and miesha Tate. But in the first round of the tournament she lost to Sarah Moras and left the project, and two years later, Tara has completed a career.

Marlos CUNÉN

The ex-champion of Strikeforce Bantamweight champion cunén began its journey in mixed martial arts in 2000. A native of the Netherlands conducted a lot of fights with notable opponents such as Chris “Cyborg”, Sarah Kaufman and miesha Tate.

Cunén was so popular that women’s promotion Invicta FC has chosen her as the headliner in his very first tournament, held in 2012. She won, but in his second fight in the promotion are unable to win the title at Featherweight, being the second time in his career destroyed “Cyborg”.

Cunén also tried his hand in Bellator, where she spent four bouts. In 2017 she fought in the first battle for the women’s title in the Bellator 145-pound division, but lost to Julia Budd and hung up gloves on a nail.

Miku MATSUMOTO

Japanese Matsumoto competed in MMA for long, from 2004 to 2009. However, in the five years my daughter had a record of 23-4 and has won several significant victories.

In particular, her rivalry with Misaki Takimoto was one of the highlights of my career. By the beginning of 2006 Matsumoto had a record of 8-2 and both of these defeats were inflicted Takimoto. But after a while Miku has established the status quo, breaking implacable opponent twice.

In the later stages of his career, Matsumoto was one of the main stars of domestic promotion DEEP, where she became the champion in the lightweight division with two successful defenses of the belt.

Megumi FUJII

Like Matsumoto, Fujii was a pioneer of women’s MMA in Japan, but only Megumi was more than a famous name in the sport.

Fujii began performing in 2004, remaining undefeated for six years. She won 22 fights in a row after going the entire distance in that time only three times. The end of her triumphant race marked the historic fight for the Bellator title in the minimum weight, where she got by two victories in a special championship tournament. In the fight with Zoila frausto of Gprel she has only lost a split decision, and at that time she was already 36 years old.

After this failure, Megumi won four of six fights before ending his career in 2013 at the age of 39 years.

Gina CARANO

Although career Carano in the cage lasted only three years, its impact on MMA was huge. It all started in 2006 when she made her debut in World Extreme Fighting. In the first fight it in 38 seconds knocked out Lately Petrovo and then beat six rivals, including Julie Kedzie, Tonya of Avinger and Kaitlin young.

However, most of Carano made a memorable battle, which she lost. In 2009, she was finishiruya Chris “Cyborg” in the first round in the battle for the Strikeforce title at Featherweight. This fight brought women’s MMA into the mainstream, because it had huge hype.

After his first defeat Carano decided not to return to fighting. She retired from the sport and switched to a career in Hollywood.