A look at every Woman that has won a UFC championship more than once
Heading into UFC 289 this weekend, GWOAT and double champion Amanda Nunes puts her belt on the line in Vancouver against Mexican stand-out Irene Aldana. As well as becoming a champion at 2 weights simultaneously, Nunes became a 2x champion when she regained her belt against Julianna Peña in July of 2022. So that begs the question: who else in the Women's divisions has won a UFC title more than once? Let us look through the history books and see.
Carla Esparza
Esparza was the inaugural Strawweight champion when the division opened in 2015 following a season of The Ultimate Fighter in which she won. However, this glory didn't last long for Esparza, as Joanna Jędrzejczyk was waiting in the wings to be her first title defense. Jędrzejczyk would snatch the title from Esparza in one of the shortest title reigns in UFC history and dominate the division for around 3 years. The belt would change hands 4 times in the following years until it ended up being held by Rose Namajunas, a former opponent of Esparza, whom she beat to win The Ultimate Fighter and the inaugural belt. The rematch was lackluster and often criticized as one of the worst fights in UFC history. However, in the end, Carla Esparza would get her hand raised and be able to call herself a 2x UFC champion.
Rose Namajunas
Namajunas secured her first UFC title with a massive upset KO win over Joanna Jędrzejczyk in 2018. She then defended her title in the immediate rematch to silence the doubters and become a defending champion. Namajunas went on to hold the title until mid-2019 when she faced Jéssica Andrade and lost by brutal slam knockout in the second round. Andrade would quickly lose the title to Zhang Weili by first-round knockout, which set up Namajunas for a shot to regain the title she worked so hard to get. In Namajunas' second title shot, she shocked the world again when she scored a head-kick knockout over Zhang in just 1 minute, regaining her title and becoming the first 2x champion in Women's UFC history.
Zhang Weili
As mentioned, Zhang won her first UFC title when she knocked out Jéssica Andrade in just 42 seconds. Zhang then returned with one of the greatest fights of all time against Joanna Jędrzejczyk, winning by a split decision to defend her title. But, unfortunately, her next fight didn't go her way as she was finished in the first round by Rose Namajunas with a vicious head-kick that rendered her unconscious. As the Strawweight title began to change hands furiously, Zhang continued on her warpath for gold and found herself in her second title shot against the new champion, Carla Esparza. Zhang dominated Esparza for 6 minutes until locking in the rear-naked choke submission and walking away as a 2x Strawweight champion.
Amanda Nunes
Amanda Nunes has solidified herself as the most remarkable woman of all time in the world of combat sports. She has held and defended 2 belts at different weight classes many times and ran through all the competition she has been up against. Nunes won her first title at UFC 200 against Meisha Tate with a first-round knockout where she left Tate bloodied and broken. Then, after 3 consecutive title defenses, Nunes decided to challenge Cris Cyborg for the Featherweight title; as Cyborg was struggling to find opponents, Nunes knew without a doubt that she would be the one to dethrone Cyborg, and in 51 seconds, she did just that. After 2 title defenses at Featherweight and 2 at Bantamweight, Nunes took on Julianna Peña for the Bantamweight championship, and Peña did what she said she would do and brought the fight to Nunes and made it a war, scoring the upset victory and becoming a UFC champion in the process. The 2 women went on to be opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter to promote their rematch. When the rematch came around, Nunes put on one of the most one-sided beatdowns the UFC has seen, dominating Peña for all 5 rounds and deciding not to finish her just to beat her up even more. Finally, Nunes received the victory, her belt back, and the ability to call herself a 2x champion.
