Sherdog's Top 10: Greatest Fighters Never to have Competed in the UFC

10 (Tie). Megumi Fujii

Japanese WMMA pioneer Fujii, who was seventh on Sherdog's list of top 10 greatest women's fighters pound-for-pound and fifth on the greatest Japanese fighters, ties for the last spot here. Possessing very skilled grappling and little else, Fujii would easily submit opponent after opponent in WMMA's early days, many of whom had barely any BJJ to speak of. Thus, she started her career a scintillating 22-0. Her best victories were submissions of Lisa Ellis twice, a 21-year-old Seo Hee Ham, and a 22-year-old Carla Esparza who was then just 3-0 in the sport. Fuji suffered her first loss to Zoila Frausto in 2010, a very close five-round split decision that could have gone either way. On the one hand, she was 36 years old, clearly past her prime, and it was hardly a decisive defeat. On the other hand, it coincided with a significant improvement in the quality of WMMA. Fujii would win a few more matches and lost two very controversial, foul-plagued decisions to Jessica Aguilar—the first a borderline robbery—before retiring.

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