The American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) is a mixed martial arts gym based in San Jose, California. It is one of the pioneering schools of mixed martial arts (MMA). In 2014, AKA opened the AKA Thailand gym in Phuket, Thailand. Prominent trainers include Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Leandro Vieira, Bob Cook, Derek Yuen, Javier Mendez, and Andy Fong. Within the facility, Muay Thai, kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling and boxing classes are taught. Additional programs include conditioning and circuit training with TRX Suspension and Combat Circuit. The AKA is one of the top professional MMA training camps.

Cristiane Justino Venâncio, known professionally as Cris Cyborg and formerly by her married name Cristiane Santos, is a Brazilian-American professional mixed martial artist and professional boxer who competes in Bellator MMA, where she is the current Bellator Women's Featherweight Champion having held the title since January 2020, and the inaugural PFL Super Fights Women's Featherweight Champion. She is also a former UFC, Strikeforce and Invicta FC World Featherweight Champion. She is the only MMA fighter in history to become a Grand Slam Champion, holding world championships across five major MMA promotions. Cyborg is widely regarded as one of the greatest female mixed martial artists of all time.

Sheila Gaff is a German mixed martial artist, and was fighting in the bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship but was released on August 12, 2013. Since May 14, 2015 she has been under contract with XFC. She is known for her berserker fighting style, which has resulted in most of her wins and losses coming via (T)KO stoppage within the first two minutes. Gaff has also worked a lot on her ground fighting, which led to successful participations in grappling tournaments. She is also known for being the first-ever woman released by UFC.

While mixed martial arts is primarily a male dominated sport, it does have female athletes. For instance, Female competition in Japan includes promotions such as DEEP Jewels. Now defunct promotions that featured female fighters were Valkyrie, and Smackgirl. Professional mixed martial arts organizations in the United States that invite women to compete are industry leader Ultimate Fighting Championship, the all female Invicta Fighting Championships, Resurrection Fighting Alliance, Bellator Fighting Championships, and Legacy Fighting Championship. Now defunct promotions that featured female fighters were Strikeforce and EliteXC. There has been a growing awareness of women in mixed martial arts due to popular female fighters and personalities such as Amanda Nunes, Megumi Fujii, Gina Carano, Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Alexa Grasso, and Joanna Jędrzejczyk and among others. Carano became known as "the face of women's MMA" after appearing in a number of EliteXC events. This was furthered by her appearances on MGM Television's 2008 revival of their game show American Gladiators.