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Standing as one of the leading representatives of French mixed martial arts, Manon Fiorot has steamrolled her way through the best that the UFC flyweight division has to offer. Joining the promotion in 2021, she has beaten every single opponent put in front of her, ranging from several former title challengers and one previous champion. Now, Manon Fiorot stands at the precipice of claiming her own piece of UFC gold when she faces women’s 125-lb queen Valentina Shevchenko this Saturday at UFC 315.
Following her shocking upset defeat to Alexa Grasso in 2023, Shevchenko embarked on a lengthy and entertaining trilogy with the Mexican-born striker. Reclaiming her strap in utterly dominant fashion at UFC 306, “Bullet” drowned Grasso in a masterful display of grappling, keeping her usurper pinned to the canvas for nearly the entire fight to score the one-sided unanimous decision victory. With her championship back around her waist, Shevchenko appears primed for another run at the top.
In terms of caliber of opposition, the Kyrgyz Muay Thai specialist will undoubtedly be the sternest test of Manon Fiorot’s career to date, given her world-class abilities both on the feet and on the ground. However, should “The Beast” manage to topple the legendary Shevchenko, then she will catapult herself into an exclusive place in the annals of mixed martial arts history.
“Nice” Upbringing Leads to Fascination with Striking For Manon Fiorot
Born in Nice, France in 1990, Manon Fiorot began her journey in combat sports at just age seven when she took up Karate, eventually acquiring her black belt in the discipline at 18 and being picked to join the French national team that same year. Six years later, she was chosen to compete at the Karate World Championships but was hurt before she could take to the mat.
After mending her injuries, Manon Fiorot began to take up kickboxing and Muay Thai, notably earning a small handful of national championships in both. She also took home a trio of French K-1 titles.
Manon Fiorot’s Transition into MMA
With an established pedigree in striking to back her up, Manon Fiorot walked into a mixed martial arts cage for the first time as an amateur in 2016 when she entered the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) tournament. Losing to Camilla Mannes in the first round of the competition, the future UFC standout returned to action that next year for the IMMAF World and European Open Championships, winning the 135-lb gold medal in the former.
One year after becoming a professional competitor, Manon Fiorot took two more amateur bouts after being cast for the second season of The Fighter, a reality television series produced by South African combat sports promotion Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC).
Kicking off her professional mixed martial arts journey in 2018, Fiorot took on Irish prospect Leah McCourt at Cage Warriors 94, losing to her fellow European by a razor-close split decision. Although her first match ended in defeat by the slimmest of margins, “The Beast”’s upcoming run on the regional circuit played out anything but. Traveling all over the world from the Middle East to South Africa, Fiorot won her next five fights in a row, capturing flyweight belts in both EFC and United Arab Emirates Warriors (UAE Warriors).
Fiorot Begins UFC Career and Ascent to Top
In 2021, Manon Fiorot received her invitation to compete in the UFC, making her first Octagon appearance at UFC Fight Island 8, where she fought and knocked out Victoria Leonardo with an expertly-timed head kick in the second round. Taking two more contests that same year, the Frenchwoman recorded further victories over exceptional fighters in Tabatha Ricci and Mayra Bueno Silva.
While she only logged four more bouts over the next three years, Manon Fiorot embarked on a dominant warpath through the female 125-lb weight class, taking down one-time title challengers in Jennifer Maia and Katlyn Chookagian and top divisional contender Erin Blanchfield. However, the biggest accomplishment of her mixed martial arts career came in her own backyard in France when she faced off with previous two-time strawweight queen Rose Namajunas at UFC Paris.
The contest marked the first time that Namajunas would be moving up to flyweight after coming off of a highly-disappointing loss to Carla Esparza at UFC 274. The loss ended her second reign as the company’s 115-lb standard in what turned out to be one of the more universally panned scraps of 2022.
While her American foe managed to outland her, it was Manon Fiorot who dictated the majority of the action in their co-main event clash, landing a devastating knee to Namajunas’s midsection that appeared to hurt the 125-lb debutant. Sweeping the judge’s scorecards in front of her native crowd, “The Beast” bested the strawweight legend by unanimous decision to propel herself to nearly the forefront of the flyweight elite.
High Stakes Await Manon Fiorot This Weekend
Traveling to Canada for what is gearing up to be the most important fight of her life, Fiorot now will come to blows with the most decorated active female mixed martial arts combatant on the planet, the aforementioned Shevchenko, at UFC 315. At the time of this writing, the Frenchwoman enters the contest as a slight betting favorite over the defending champion, although it will be “Bullet” who holds a significant edge in title match experience, having fought 11 straight world championship bouts since 2018.
Should Fiorot get the job done this weekend, she will become the first undisputed French-born UFC champion, after her countryman Ciryl Gane previously won the interim heavyweight strap at UFC 265.
