Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Fighters of the 2010s

5. Amanda Nunes

Sherdog's greatest female fighter ever pound-for-pound and third greatest Brazilian finishes in the top half again. Ranking Nunes was a challenge. Until 2015, Nunes had a rocky start to the decade, going 5-3 with notable successes, but also decisive losses to Alexis Davis and Cat Zingano by TKO, and to Sarah D'Alelio where she lost every round on every scorecard. After the Zingano loss in September of 2014, however, Nunes achieved her tremendous potential, and finished the decade a perfect 10-0 with numerous wins over top contenders and champions, with only the rematch against Valentina Shevchenko drawing any dissent. At her best, Nunes achieved a level of fighting ability that no other woman, not even rival Shevchenko, ever has. Nunes was a tremendous threat anywhere a fight went, with excellent wrestling, arguably the best in her division, fantastic, slick submission skills and brutal ground-and-pound. Of course, her biggest weapon was her fast, technical, and above all, viciously powerful striking, arguably the best in WMMA history at any weight.

Nunes' talent for fighting was immediately apparent, needing just 14 seconds to knock out Julia Budd in Strikeforce in 2010, and finishing Germaine de Randamie with ground-and-pound in the opening stanza. However, Nunes suffered from cardio woes as well as a certain mental weakness, wilting when an opponent offered significant resistance. Thus, Nunes suffered those setbacks against Davis, D'Alelio and Zingano. During her 10-0 streak after moving to American Top Team, the only close affair was a split decision in the Shevchenko rematch, which a slight majority, myself included, believed Shevchenko had won, three rounds to two. However, Nunes clearly beat Shevchenko in their first meeting, and everything else was a one-sided beating, which included many of the other greatest female fighters ever. She knocked out Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm and even Cristiane Justino in the first round, “Cyborg” and Rousey succumbing in less than a minute, submitted Sara McMann and Miesha Tate in the first round, obliterated Raquel Pennington before stopping her in the fifth round and easily defeated Germaine de Randamie in a rematch.

At the close of the 2010s, Nunes was the consensus No. 1 woman in the sport in two weight classes and owned stoppage wins over every other woman who had ever held a UFC or Bellator title in either of those divisions. For the second half of the decade, no one was better.

Continue Reading » Number 4