On Saturday, Valentina Shevchenko will look to continue her stranglehold on the flyweight division, and bolster her case as the top pound-for-pound woman in the sport.
As “Bullet” prepares to square off against Lauren Murphy in the co-main event of UFC 266, she is perhaps the most dominant divisional champion of either gender in major MMA. A win would be Shevchenko’s sixth consecutive title defense, breaking a three-way tie with two of her former opponents, Amanda Nunes and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, for the UFC women’s divisional record. (Though to be fair, Nunes has defended the bantamweight title five times, but has also defended the featherweight strap twice over that same time.