{"id":39358,"date":"2026-07-17T22:20:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T22:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Former-topranked-womens-bantamweight-UFC-title-challenger-retires-from-MMA-201959"},"modified":"2026-07-17T22:20:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T22:20:51","slug":"former-top-ranked-womens-bantamweight-ufc-title-challenger-retires-from-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/former-top-ranked-womens-bantamweight-ufc-title-challenger-retires-from-mma\/","title":{"rendered":"Former top-ranked women\u2019s bantamweight, UFC title challenger retires from MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/former-top-ranked-womens-bantamweight-ufc-title-challenger-retires-from-mma.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p> The <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/organizations\/Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-2\">Ultimate Fighting Championship<\/a> may be quietly<br \/>\nallowing its 135-pound women\u2019s division to wind down.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/ufc\/499907\/one-time-ufc-title-challenger-irene-aldana-removed-from-ufc-roster\"><br \/>\nMMA Fighting<\/a> initially reported on Friday that <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Irene-Aldana-148377\">Irene<br \/>\nAldana<\/a> (15-8), former bantamweight title challenger and<br \/>\ntop-ranked athlete, has retired at the age of 38. The news has<br \/>\nsince been confirmed by <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/espndeportes.espn.com\/artes-marciales-mixtas\/nota\/_\/id\/17015331\/ufc-irene-aldana-mexicana-retira-mma-salud\"><br \/>\nESPN Deportes<\/a>, who further indicated that Aldana is not done<br \/>\nwith combat sports overall.<\/p>\n<div id=\"adViAi\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> The perennial contender leaves this sport behind with her name<br \/>\nlittered throughout the record books in her division. One of the<br \/>\nmore active competitors in UFC women\u2019s bantamweight history, Aldana<br \/>\nboasts a <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/statleaders.ufc.com\/?fighter_status=0&amp;weight_class=WBW\"><br \/>\nlitany of top-10 distinctions<\/a> in categories like most<br \/>\nappearances, knockdowns and many more. Despite her last appearance<br \/>\nin September 2024, the Mexican boxer still holds the second-most<br \/>\nsignificant strikes landed in her division\u2019s history, 1,028<br \/>\ncompared to the leader of <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Raquel-Pennington-75564\">Raquel<br \/>\nPennington<\/a> at 1,148.<center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mWBWgKQq-JQ?si=EVPjTX9HjWbyh0Eo&amp;start=10\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen>[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<h2>Blood for the Blood God, skulls for the Skull Throne<\/h2>\n<p>Aldana last set foot in the cage at the second Noche UFC event in<br \/>\n2024, which was also titled UFC 306. At that event, she fought<br \/>\ntooth-and-nail with <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Norma-Dumont-233587\">Norma<br \/>\nDumont<\/a> in a terrifically bloody affair where Dumont\u2019s forehead<br \/>\nsplit wide open. Despite the carnage, doctors cleared her to<br \/>\ncontinue, and she reached the final bell\u2014albeit sustaining a loss<br \/>\nvia decision.<\/p>\n<p>Two fights before the Dumont scrap, Aldana battled <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Amanda-Nunes-31496\">Amanda<br \/>\nNunes<\/a> for the bantamweight strap. The Logo Gym MMA fighter<br \/>\ncould not match the intensity that Nunes brought to the table,<br \/>\nlosing all five rounds with one or two considered 10-8s on official<br \/>\nscorecards. Despite not winning gold, Aldana celebrates victories<br \/>\nover notable names in the sport including <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Ketlen-Vieira-178961\">Ketlen<br \/>\nVieira<\/a>, <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Yana-Santos-49412\">Yana Santos<\/a>,<br \/>\n<a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Macy-Chiasson-190279\">Macy<br \/>\nChiasson<\/a> and <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Karol-Rosa-115135\">Karol<br \/>\nRosa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><center readability=\"2.234693877551\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" readability=\"6.7040816326531\">\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">Habl\u00e9 con Irene Aldana, quien me confirm\u00f3 su<br \/>\nretiro de las MMA. En abril de este a\u00f1o inform\u00f3 al UFC su intenci\u00f3n<br \/>\nde retirarse y enfocarse en su salud<\/p>\n<p>La historia en <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNDeportes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ESPNDeportes<\/a><br \/>\n<a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sainnY3lWA\">https:\/\/t.co\/sainnY3lWA<\/a><br \/>\n<a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mmKbunI4eC\">pic.twitter.com\/mmKbunI4eC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Carlos Contreras Legaspi \ud83e\udd81 (@CCLegaspi) <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CCLegaspi\/status\/2078233485068689762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"><br \/>\nJuly 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ultimate Fighting Championship may be quietly allowing its 135-pound women\u2019s division to wind down. MMA Fighting initially reported on Friday that Irene Aldana (15-8), former bantamweight title challenger and top-ranked athlete, has retired at the age of 38. The news has since been confirmed by ESPN Deportes, who further indicated that Aldana is not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}