Fast facts
- Division: Women’s flyweight (No. 14 in the Knockout Daily rankings)
- Record: 19-6
- Nationality: United States (of Armenian descent)
- Team/gym: Team Renzo Gracie
- Notable wins: Antonina Shevchenko, Jennifer Maia (twice), Amanda Ribas, Joanne Calderwood, Alexis Davis, Viviane Araújo, Cynthia Calvillo
For the better part of a decade, a Katlyn Cerminara fight had a shape you could set your watch to. Fifteen minutes, three judges, a long walk to the center of the cage to hear the scores read. Then on October 17, 2026, at UFC Fight Night 291 in Edmonton, she caught Mackenzie Stiller with a head kick, followed it with punches, and the fight was over in the first round. It was her 18th appearance in the UFC and the first time she had finished anyone there.
The UFC’s account posted that she was hyped after the finish, and she had earned the right to be. Aaron Bronsteter pointed out on X that it was her first knockout or TKO win since her Cage Fury Fighting Championships days in 2016, adding that “Stiller had a lot of trouble with her range.” Jed Meshew II was blunter, writing: “Cerminara out here getting finishes and people are still gonna defend UFC matchmaking.”
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Pizza, karate and a business degree
She was born Katlyn Chookagian on December 28, 1988, in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Quakertown Senior High School. She started karate at four years old, which tells you something about where that range Bronsteter mentioned came from. Her first job was serving pizza at Q-Mart. Later she tended bar in Hoboken, New Jersey, and somewhere in there she finished a bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
I love that résumé. Plenty of fighters arrive at the sport with nothing else to fall back on. Cerminara had a degree and a bar job and chose the harder road anyway, starting amateur MMA in 2012 and going 7-0 before turning pro in 2014.
The room she trained in helped. Her teammates and training partners have included Gordon Ryan, Claudia Gadelha, Sijara Eubanks and Frankie Edgar, the team captain. She fights out of Team Renzo Gracie, and a gym like that does not let you coast on talent.
The regional grind
Her pro debut came on June 28, 2014, at CFFC 37, a unanimous decision over Rebecca Heintzman. That September she went to World Series of Fighting 13 and knocked out 44-year-old Brigitte Narcise 38 seconds into the final round at flyweight.
Then came the part of a regional career nobody puts on a highlight reel. Two straight bouts fell through, one against Allanna Jones at Ring of Combat 49 and another against Nohime Dennison at CFFC 45. When she finally got back in the cage, on May 9, 2015, she fought twice in a single day, beating Linn Wennergren by unanimous decision and then submitting Melinda Fábián in the first round. Two fights, one day, after months of nothing. That is a fighter who wanted the work.
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She went back to CFFC for three more fights and left with two belts, the promotion’s flyweight and bantamweight titles, plus a knockout by knee along the way.
Fifteen minutes at a time
The UFC brought her in on July 13, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 91, and she beat Lauren Murphy by unanimous decision. A split decision loss to Liz Carmouche at UFC 205 followed. After that she started stacking wins: Irene Aldana at UFC 210, Mara Romero Borella at UFC on Fox 27, Alexis Davis at UFC on Fox 30. Jessica Eye edged her on a split decision at UFC 231 in December 2018, and Cerminara answered with wins over Joanne Calderwood at UFC 238 and Jennifer Maia at UFC 244. Maia came in at 127.2 pounds for that one and gave up 25 percent of her purse to Cerminara.
That run got her a shot at Valentina Shevchenko and the flyweight title at UFC 247 on February 8, 2020. Shevchenko stopped her by TKO in Round 3. Less than four months later she faced Antonina Shevchenko, Valentina’s sister, controlled her on the ground for most of the fight and won a unanimous decision. Jéssica Andrade stopped her in the first round that October, and a month later she beat Cynthia Calvillo at UFC 255.
Wins over Viviane Araújo at UFC 262 and Maia again in January 2022 made it three straight. Then a strange detail surfaced: the Maia rematch was the last fight on her contract, and Cerminara said afterward that the UFC had declined to negotiate a new deal before the bout, which left her a free agent. She re-signed, and the first fight on the new contract was a back-and-forth split decision over Amanda Ribas in May 2022 that earned her the first Fight of the Night bonus of her career.
The numbers from that stretch are worth sitting with. She holds the record for most decision wins in UFC women’s history with 11, and 11 of her 12 UFC wins went the distance. She has the most bouts in UFC women’s flyweight history (15), the second most wins in the division (10, behind Valentina Shevchenko), the second most significant strikes landed (964) and the second most total fight time (3:20:44, again behind Shevchenko). People called her style safe. I’d call it durable. Nobody piles up that much cage time at flyweight without being very good at not getting hurt.
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The hard years
The Manon Fiorot fight took months to happen. It was booked for September 2022, Cerminara withdrew, Andrade replaced her and then withdrew herself, Cerminara came back in, and a Fiorot knee injury pushed it to UFC 280 that October. Cerminara missed weight at 127.5 pounds, gave up 20 percent of her purse and lost a unanimous decision.
She stepped away after that fight. During that time away from competition, she suffered two miscarriages. She came back on March 9, 2024, at UFC 299 and lost a unanimous decision to Maycee Barber. Then she was gone again, this time for two years.
Edmonton, and after
The return was supposed to be against Jamey-Lyn Horth. Horth withdrew with an injury, and Stiller, making her UFC debut, took the spot. Cerminara walked in off back-to-back losses and a long absence and won in a way she never had in the UFC before.
She is 37 now, 19-6, and ranked No. 14 at flyweight. A head kick against a promotional newcomer does not rewrite a career. It does tell you the karate kid from Quakertown still has new things to show after 18 UFC fights, and the woman who has spent more time in the flyweight cage than almost anyone alive deserves a ranked opponent next, with real stakes attached.
