2020 Year in Review: The women’s flyweight division
2020 was a wild year for MMA, that feels like it lasted a lifetime. With all the action that took place over the year, it’s hard to remember what took place. This series looks to help out with that, providing an overview on what happened in each weight class, and a look at what we can expect to come in 2021.
Year in Review
The Good
For the women’s flyweight division, 2020 was a nuts-and-bolts kind of year. There were no enormously exciting highlights or End of Year awards to be had, just a year of perfectly solid performances up and down the rankings and the steady churn of a healthy division creating new contenders and storylines.
UFC champion Valentina Shevchenko defended her belt twice in 2020, both times against new challengers to the throne. Beyond Shevchenko, the rest of the division also kept moving forward with former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade joining the division and immediately staking a claim for a title shot by beating No. 2-ranked flyweight Katlyn Chookagian. Then there’s Lauren Murphy who had a sensational year, stringing together three wins (and a lovely title shot plea) to announce herself as a bona fide contender.
As far as outside of the UFC goes, arguably no division had a more impressive year. Bellator’s flyweight division in particular got more interesting as it saw a new champion crowned when Juliana Velasquez took the belt off Ilima-Lei Macfarlane. The division also added Invicta FC champion Vanessa Porto to their roster and featured the promotional debut of Liz Carmouche, still undoubtedly one of the best flyweights on Earth.
The Bad
It feels harsh to say given that it was only one performance, but Bellator champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane losing her title is a tough pill to swallow, both for Macfarlane and Bellator. Having held the belt since 2017, Macfarlane was a homegrown star for Bellator, one the promotion was very much behind. Her loss to Juliana Velasquez, while not unexpected, was a definite setback for both her and the promotion and given the tenor of their fight, it’s unlikely Macfarlane can reclaim the title, meaning one of Bellator’s best stars is now just an also-ran in the division.
The Ugly
It’s fair to say that Maycee Barber is one of the most hyped prospects in women’s MMA at the moment (and even if you don’t say so, she certainly will). At only 22 years old, Barber has already been in the UFC for two years and “The Future” has made no bones about her aspirations, repeatedly saying she plans to be the youngest champion in UFC history, and while that goal is technically still possible (Barber would need to win the title by January 16, 2020 to break Jon Jones’ record) it no longer looks remotely plausible (such that it ever did).
In January, Barber became one of the biggest favorites in UFC history to lose when she was beaten by Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 246. The loss, to put it bluntly, was bad. Modafferi is one of the most experienced veterans in the entire sport but if your aim is to be the youngest champion ever, you can’t lose to her at this stage of her career.
However, if the loss was bad, her and her team’s reaction to it was substantially worse. After the loss, Barber’s father and coach entirely discredited Modafferi’s win, blaming it on an ACL tear suffered during the bout and in no way reflecting on the other factors that played into her loss, namely that she was soundly out-grappled for 15 minutes. Losing to a veteran after suffering an injury is a pretty standard “prospect loss” that most people could write off. But losing in a reasonable manner and then rejecting that loss entirely is both an ugly look and doesn’t portend the kind of self-reflection required to make the necessary adjustments moving forward.
