The co-main event features arguably the best women’s fighter on the planet, Valentina “Bullet” Shevchenko defending her flyweight title against Lauren Murphy.
Shevchenko has not lost in over four years, when she was defeated in controversial fashion by Amanda Nunes. In fact, of Shevchenko’s three professional losses, two have been to Nunes.
The last time Shevchenko fought was in April, defending her belt against Jessica Andrade, who is also on the main pay-per-view card Saturday night against Cynthia Calvillo. Andrade has lost three of her last four fights since losing the flyweight title to Rose Namajunas in May 2019.
Nunes may go down as the greatest female fighter in history, as she still holds the bantamweight and featherweight crowns. She has not lost since September 2014. However, if you put their last 10 fights side by side, you can make the argument that “Bullet” might have a bit better resume than “The Lioness.”
For Nunes, that tenth fight was her first matchup with Shevchenko in March 2016, which was a unanimous decision victory. Despite wins over a who’s who in the history of women’s MMA, there are a lot of question marks in the caliber of opponent.
Cris “Cyborg” Santos has made a career of either ducking fighters or cleaning out divisions with inferior competition. Ronda Rousey had not fought in several years. Holly Holm came up on the losing end of most of her marquee opponents after taking Rousey down in the greatest upset in UFC history. Germaine de Randamie was stripped of the featherweight crown in May 2017 after refusing to fight Cyborg. De Randamie had issues with fighting someone for her title with a repeated history of performance enhancing drug (PED) abuse.
Shevchenko on the other hand has put away a former champion in Joanna Jedzrejczyk, Jessica “Evil” Eye, Liz Carmouche, Kaitlyn Chookagian, Jennifer Maia and Andrade in her last five title defenses. After the split decision loss to Nunes for the bantamweight title, “Bullet” moved back to flyweight and has never been more dominant.
Shevchenko has gone the distance in either a main event or title fight five times in those last 10 fights, whereas Nunes has only gone the full 25 minutes three times. The first matchup between Nunes and Shevchenko was only a three-round bout.
Nunes has five stoppages in the first round, where Shevchenko does not have any. This is likening to the “Rousey Effect,” where you begin to question a fighter being too dominant by ending a fight so early. When Rousey was not able to put away Holm in the first round, you began to notice how she was almost unsure of what to do.
I am not petitioning for a third fight between the two, as fighters moving up or down a weight class to take a superfight never ends well. Although, I am hoping Jon Jones moves up to heavyweight and runs his face directly into Francis Ngannou’s fist about 20-30 times.
Nunes may be the greatest of all time, but 2021 certainly worked against her. Her next fight is not slated until December 11 at UFC 269 against Julianna Pena. The bout was supposed to take place last month, but was rescheduled when Nunes tested positive for Covid-19 two weeks out. This will be a nine-month layoff for the most marketable female in the sport.
A victory over Murphy on Saturday would make Shevchenko the best female fighter in the world...at the moment. Nunes has just 2:03 worth of time in the cage since June of 2020. This would give Shevchenko three wins in less than a calendar year.
The key to her next fight would lie with Calvillo’s performance against Andrade, as Calvillo currently sits at sixth in the women’s flyweight rankings.
-JC24