Hannah Cifers

Hannah Cifers is a retired UFC strawweight who competed in the sport from 2013 to 2022. Born June 26, 1992, in Oxford, she turned professional over a decade ago and developed an 8-2 record across various regional promotions before signing with the UFC in November 2018. She made her promotional debut on short notice against Maycee Barber at UFC Fight Night: Korean Zombie vs. Rodriguez, losing via technical knockout but gaining valuable experience at the highest level. Cifers fought as a pressure-oriented, striking-heavy competitor who landed significant strikes primarily from distance (74 percent of her output), with respectable accuracy and sound striking defense for a mid-tier prospect. Her technical output ranged around 4.99 significant strikes landed per minute, an acceptable rate for the strawweight division.

Cifers showed early promise in the UFC during 2019. She earned a split decision victory over Polyana Viana at UFC 235 in March 2019, then followed that with a clean unanimous decision win against Jodie Esquibel at UFC 241 in August 2019. Those back-to-back wins positioned her as a rising prospect in the strawweight ranks and suggested she could compete with elite-level talent. However, her fortunes reversed dramatically in early 2020. Beginning in January 2020, Cifers entered a brutal five-fight losing streak that exposed the limitations of her ground defense against elite submission specialists. She lost to Angela Hill via TKO in round two, then suffered back-to-back submission losses to Mackenzie Dern (who famously won with the first leglock submission in women's UFC history, a kneebar finish) and Mariya Agapova in quick succession. Despite a weight miss against Mallory Martin in August 2020 that cost her 20 percent of her purse, she lost that fight via rear-naked choke in round two.

The 2020 losing streak proved terminal to Cifers' UFC career. She finished her octagon tenure with a 2-5 record in the promotion and a 10-7 overall professional mark. After pulling out of scheduled bouts in 2021 and 2022, she was removed from the UFC roster. Cifers is now retired from professional competition.