LAS VEGAS — This Saturday at UFC 332, surging contender Natalia Silva will face promotional upstart Wang Cong to crown a new champion in the women's 125lb division, just the fourth in the history of the weight class. The division opened in late 2017, giving it roughly nine years of operation ahead of Saturday's vacant title fight, a remarkably low turnover compared to the men's lightweight division, which has had four different undisputed champions in just the past five years.
The UFC opened the women's flyweight division through Season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter, a method previously used to launch the strawweight division. Coaches Justin Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez led 16 women to the finale on December 01, 2017. The inaugural title went to one of the biggest upstarts in show history. The 28-year-old Nicco Montano entered with a modest 3-2 record and ranked No. 14 in the house on Team Gaethje, then bested veterans Lauren Murphy and Montana De La Rosa (née Stewart) and the second-ranked and first overall pick Barb Honchak to reach the final, where she outlasted teammate and top-ranked Roxanne Roman (née Modafferi) by decision.
Montano's reign ended without a defense. After a nine-month layoff, she was forced out the morning before her scheduled first defense against Valentina Shevchenko after suffering health complications during her weight cut and was subsequently stripped of the title so the vacant belt could be contested three months later. A suspension for testing positive for ostarine later that year and lingering health issues kept her out until 2019, and she would have only one more UFC fight following her title win. In what would have been her last UFC appearance, she missed weight by seven pounds and the bout was cancelled.
Shevchenko arrived at 125lbs in 2018 after a strong run at 135lbs, where she was widely regarded as the best female bantamweight not named Amanda Nunes and had notched several high-profile victories. Many considered 125lbs her optimal weight class, and following a razor-close split-decision loss in the rematch to Nunes for the bantamweight title, she dropped down. She won the vacant belt against former Muay Thai foe Joanna Jedrzejczyk in December of 2018, then built a dominant run with finishes of Jessica Eye, former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade, Kaitlyn Cerminara (née Chookagian) and Lauren Murphy, and routs of future longtime Bellator champion Liz Carmouche and Jennifer Maia. That dominance ended in 2023 when she dropped the belt to Alexa Grasso by submission in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
Grasso, once one of the youngest prospects on the roster, claimed gold at a peak moment for Mexico, joining countrymen Brandon Moreno and Yair Rodriguez as simultaneous UFC champions with three titleholders from the country. She headlined the first Noche UFC event later in September, staged as a celebration of combat sports athletes from Mexico on Mexican Independence Day weekend. Grasso and Shevchenko fought to a draw in an immediate rematch that summer of their March bout, a result that saw Grasso retain by default while many felt Shevchenko had done enough to earn a close decision and regain the title. Silva and Wang now meet to write the next chapter and become the division's fourth champion, a vacant title fight that follows UFC 332 weigh-ins for the vacant title.