On Saturday, top women’s featherweight contender Felicia Spencer turned in one of the best performances of her career. Matched up against Leah Letson – an Ultimate Fighter 28 alum who hadn’t fought since that season’s finale, three years ago – Spencer beat Letson to a pulp, outstriking her 227-69 before forcing a stoppage late in the third round.
It was 14 and a half minutes of Spencer bullying Letson in the clinch and punishing her relentlessly. It was a fantastic, dominant showing from Spencer. It also didn’t matter one bit.
That’s because Spencer, undoubtedly one of the top 145ers in the world, will never in any conceivable timeline be good enough to be a threat to win a title. There are two undeniably great women’s featherweights in MMA: UFC champion Amanda Nunes and Bellator champion Cris Cyborg. Spencer – who’s good enough to beat almost every other 145-pounder around – has been beaten down by both of them to an uncomfortable degree.
As recently as last spring, the UFC was on the verge of cutting its men’s 125-pound division, only for the timely emergence of some key young talent to save the day. There’s no such influx coming at 145, the only division in the UFC that doesn’t have enough fighters to put together a top 15 ranking. The featherweight division only seems to exist to prop up Nunes’ status as a double champ. And as time goes on, it becomes harder and harder to see the division’s future.
Over the last several years, Bellator has given compiling a real women’s 145 division a real honest try. They signed Cyborg, by resume the greatest women’s featherweight of all time and still a killer in her late 30s, and attempted to build the class around her. They’ve snagged some strong UFC releases like Cat Zingano and Leslie Smith. But after all these years, they don’t have anyone on Cyborg’s level. Former champion Julia Budd decamped to fight in PFL’s 155 division next year – more on that later – and Cyborg has run through the competition that she’s resorted to sleeping outmatched unfortunates like 7-5 Sinead Kavanagh.
It’s actually somehow much worse in the UFC. Nunes has no conceivable challengers at 145. Since knocking out Cyborg in 2018 to win the title, she’s defended the belt twice. She brutalized Spencer in one of the most one-sided five-round fights ever, then rolled through a clearly terrified Megan Anderson in two minutes back in March – Anderson has since been released by the UFC. 31-year-old Brazilian Norma Dumont is likely next up, and while she doesn’t completely suck, she’s likely no match.
The dominance of Nunes and Cyborg aside, there simply isn’t an influx of talent coming in. Even the 135-pound division has few prospects to challenge Nunes on the horizon – there are some good fighters there, but Nunes has beaten everyone, and next challenger Julianna Pena will likely be another sacrifice. Bellator doesn’t have a women’s bantamweight division. There isn’t much at 135, and even less at 145. It’s caused many to wonder if the UFC is simply going to pull the plug – Dana White has equivocated on the topic, but it’s likely that if Nunes isn’t there anymore, it’s over.
There’s only one compelling name who could change the equation in the division: Kayla Harrison. The former Olympic judo gold medalist has been comically dominant in the women’s 155-pound division for the PFL – a division that exists even less than 145 does, but essentially exists just for her. The PFL brought in Budd to provide a real veteran challenger for her next year, but it’s quite possible Harrison isn’t around anymore.
Harrison will be hitting the free agent market as a fascinating asset, and perhaps the last remaining hope to save the 145-pound division. Although she’s been fighting at 155, she took a shot at cutting to 145 last December – she hit the mark with seemingly little issue, then rolled through her opponent.
Harrison likely wouldn’t be favored against either Nunes or Cyborg, but exists as the only really interesting challenger that you could scare up to fight either one. Only one organization can have her, and you’re only guaranteed to get one good fight out of the whole deal. If you’re the UFC and you sign Kayla Harrison, and then she loses to Nunes, what the hell does she do then? With that question in mind, is there even a real point?
It’s a problem created by a lack of planning, a lack of will, and a lack of talent. There’s no easy answer. And by this time next year, there may no longer be a women’s featherweight division to speak of.
The Big Fight 