Follow along: Last May, Jessica Andrade knocked out Rose Namajunas with a thunderous slam to become the fourth woman to capture the strawweight title. Namajunas had won the title with a stunning knockout of Joanna Jedrzejczyk, then took a convincing decision in their rematch, making her 2-0 against the greatest fighter in the short history of the division. Jedrzejczyk’s last successful title defense before losing to Namajunas had been a one-sided drubbing of Andrade. And the woman “Joanna Champion” defeated to kick off her thus far unmatched run of five straight title defenses? That would be Carla Esparza, who became the UFC’s inaugural strawweight champ by defeating none other than Namajunas, convincingly at that.
Then onto the carousel stepped Weili Zhang, who blew away Andrade in less than a minute to win the belt last August. While Zhang’s monstrous 20-fight win streak and the dominant manner in which she wrested the title from Andrade seem to imply the carousel ride might be over, several of the former champs might have something to say about it first, starting this Saturday with Jedrzejczyk.
Here is the brief but eventful history of the UFC strawweight title. It tells a story of a division with surprising depth and parity from day one, a division that continues to grow and develop as its initial crop of contenders have taken turns knocking each other off the throne.
Ben Duffy/Sherdog.com illustration