UFC 217: Career Rundown - Joanna Jedrzejczyk

While it is occasionally seen in boxing, going unbeaten in MMA is practically impossible, thanks largely to the wide variety of styles that can be utilised to win. However, every once in a while, a fighter comes along that displays an aura of invincibility. Joanna Jedrzejczyk is such a fighter.

Born in Olsztyn, Poland, Joanna was comparatively late to the martial arts, picking up Muay Thai kickboxing during her teenage years. However, it became pretty evident that she had natural ability. By the time she was 23, she was already a double world champion in Muay Thai, and a world champion in kickboxing. She would add three further world Muay Thai titles by the time she took up MMA professionally, underlining her striking pedigree.

It's worth putting Joanna's rise in the context of the rapidly growing women's mixed martial arts divisions in the UFC. Thanks largely to the popularity and appeal of Ronda Rousey at bantamweight, Dana White's frosty approach to womens' MMA had thawed, with a series of The Ultimate Fighter designed to create a new strawweight division and name a new champion. While the series came too soon for the Polish striker, it would not take her too long to make her mark.

Her breakthrough moment would come against perhaps her greatest rival to date - the Brazilian Claudia Gadelha. Having come through her UFC debut relatively unscathed against Juliana Lima, the Pole was pushed to the limit in her bout against Gadelha, emerging a narrow victor by split decision. While she has since defended her belt successfully against the Brazilian in a far more dominant performance, this was certainly the fight that gave her the greatest difficulty.

After a challenge, the greatest fighters go back to the drawing board to hone their skills, and Jedrzejczyk certainly did that. Undoubtedly one of the most decorated strikers in the UFC, she has continued to work to ensure that she is applying her experience in Muay Thai and kickboxing to better her MMA striking. And this improvement has been continuous and stark.

Just look at her dissection of Jessica Penne in her first defence. For the length of the fight, she landed crisp, clean combinations, playing with her opponent until she became a bloody mess and had no defence to her striking. However, it is perhaps her striking defence that has become most noticeable in recent bouts. Other than a brief knockdown in her second fight against Gadelha, and a more significant period of pressure against Karolina Kowalkiewicz in her last fight at MSG, her UFC career has been a masterclass of defensive fighting.

Nothing says this more than her most recent title defence against Jessica Andrade at UFC 211. The ex-bantamweight was identified as a vicious power striker with a significant advantage in the strength and grappling stakes. However, when it came to fight night, the champion simply shut that down. Working behind her jab effectively, she outlanded the Brazilian by 230 to 94 - the highest significant strike differential in UFC title history. It's probably worth mentioning that she also holds the rest of the top four, as well as the top two in most significant strikes landed!

Such has been her success in recent years, she enters into UFC 217 looking to tie Ronda Rousey's record of six successive title defences in womens' MMA. As I mentioned earlier, there is that veil of invincibility around Joanna Champion at present, but as we have seen with Rousey, that can be taken away in an instant. In fact, you could argue it's simply a case of when and not if. Look at the greatest martial artists of all time - GSP, Hughes, Liddell, Ortiz, Couture, Silva - all of which looked invincible at some point, but all came a cropper at some point.

As the women's strawweight division continues to gain talent and awareness, the quality of challenger will increase accordingly - but is November 4 the day that unbeaten record goes? Let me know your thoughts on this, and the success of Joanna Champion either in the comments or @TheWeighInMMA on Twitter.

MMA Awards 2017: The Case For... Amanda Nunes

The women's bantamweight title has been somewhat of a hot potato during 2016, with the belt changing hands no fewer than three times over the year. However, if you had asked MMA fans to predict who would have been champion as we moved into 2017, Amanda Nunes would not have been at the top of many lists.

However, when it comes to her being named the Female Fighter of the Year, the case for Amanda Nunes is more than strong enough if you only consider the 48 seconds at UFC 207, when she demolished the woman widely considered the greatest female fighter of all time. As Ronda Rousey staggered around the Octagon in the moments proceeding the fight, the illusion was well and truly shattered, and Amanda Nunes' star was solidified. Throw in the fact that she enjoyed a 3-0 record in 2016, claiming the sport's highest prize by beating another MMA legend in Miesha Tate, it's almost embarrassing to consider anyone else.

Nevertheless, we must. In fact, Angela Hill can actually better Nunes' record in 2016, going 4-0 in her run to the top of Invicta's strawweight division. However, when you consider both the calibre of fighters that she has come across this year, as well as the fact that she ended 2015 with back to back losses against top 10 UFC fighters in Rose Namajunas and Tecia Torres, the gloss of that accomplishment slightly wears off. Similarly, the achievements of Angela Lee, the ONE FC's inaugural women's atomweight champion, are not in the same league as those of Nunes, winning just two fights in 2016, albeit in a rapidly rising organisation.

If 2013 was the introduction to women in the UFC, and 2015 was the year of its biggest shock, then 2016 was when the divisions demonstrated their strength in depth. Joanna Jedrzejczyk, peerless in her 2015 run to and then defence of the strawweight title, has certainly noticed that this year. Though she comfortably outpointed Claudia Gadelha in a fight with more than a little bad blood, she found herself more than challenged by fellow Pole Karolina Kowalkiewicz, getting dropped in the fourth round before reclaiming her composure. She maintains the UFC crown, but it is beginning to look a little more uncertain than it did a year ago.

Finally, the introduction of Cris 'Cyborg' Justino to the UFC was a moment many thought would never come. Having cleared out the Invicta Featherweight division, Dana White was at a loss to find her an opponent at 145 lbs, forcing two catchweight bouts against mid-level bantamweight fighters. The inevitable batterings ensued, with the weight cut nearly killing Cyborg in the process. While the announcement of a new featherweight division could lead to a greater challenge for Justino in 2017, her health problems, and a certain case currently with USADA, means that 2016 represents just a step forward in her career, rather than a seminal moment.

Meanwhile, it has certainly been a transformational year for the 'Lioness'. Taking her performances inside the Octagon aside, the progress she has made in her game across the board has been remarkable. She is now arguably the most well-rounded female fighter in the UFC, or at least closing in rapidly on Jedrzejczyk, possessing some of the most dangerous boxing in the division. She has also demonstrated how adept she is on the mat, using her black belt in jiu-jitzu to claim the title from Tate at the main event of UFC 200.

As a result, her confidence is sky-high, and she's recently said that she feels she can emulate Conor McGregor and hold two UFC belts simultaneously. Eyeing up the winner of the inaugural women's featherweight title fight between Germaine de Randemie and Holly Holm, she firmly believes that either woman would see a fate similar to Ronda Rousey.

For many, her place as the year's best female fighter is beyond doubt, but if she does manage to accomplish what she intends next year, she will solidify herself as one of the greatest ever.