Spire unveils WMMA rankings

Women's MMA has never been more popular.

With the growth of the all-women's fight league Invicta, and the UFC's recent foray into the women's 135-pound division, the fairer sex is getting their turn to shine in mixed martial arts.

Always improving and adapting, the Spire Sanctioning Alliance has updated their amateur rankings to include the women's bantamweight division.

Already providing rankings for their male counterparts, this will be the first Spire rankings for amateur women. Combing records and using a top-secret algorithm, Jayson Cooper and his team have categorized and ranked the area's top women fighters.

"I've had several conversations in the recent past with fighters, trainers, fans, and media," Cooper said. "A recent conversation with Eric Clarkson from Proving Grounds is what finally convinced me into starting them."

Last weekend Fight Hard MMA included four women's fights on the bill, making it the largest number of female athletes to compete at a local event in recent memory.

"Ultimately, we decided to do it because they deserve the recognition for their hard work and dedication to our sport just like the guys" Cooper said. "It just took a while to get enough women involved to get a top 5, much less a top 10 or 15."

Here are Spire's top 10 women's 135 pound athletes:
1) Brittany Dugas
2) Wendy Julian
3) Susie Wyatt
4) Jessica Laubacker
5) Michelle Pearce
6) Liz Turpin
7) Katy Collins
8) Krystal Jordan
9) Beckie Gullet
10) Melissa Shepard

For more information and rankings for all of the Spire divisions check out the Spire website at http://spiremma.com