3 of the best moments of Valentina Shevchenko's career

Valentina Shevchenko will have the most important fight of her career on Saturday, Sept. 14 In the co-main event of UFC 306. She challenges flyweight Alexa Grasso once more after they fought to a draw at the first Noche UFC last year.

For years, Shevchenko had been considered one of the very best female fighters on the planet, seamlessly blending Muay That and judo together to form an impeccable fighting style that almost no one seemed to solve. It served her well at bantamweight, where she gave Amanda Nunes the most highly-contested fights of her career. And it served her excellently at flyweight, where she dominantly ruled as its unsolvable queen.

Her reign lasted seven defenses in more than eight years, and then UFC 285 came. At that event, she was a monstrous favorite over an unheralded Grasso, who was dismissed as just another overmatched victim despite a solid four-win streak. What instead happened was a title change for the ages, as Grasso exploited a whiffed spinning back kick by Shevchenko to take her back and dethrone her with a face crank.

This led to the aforementioned draw in the rematch, which ended in a very controversial split draw that Shevchenko maintained she would have won if not for an errant judge. A year since then, she is now 36 and seemingly running out of time to remain an elite fighter in the Octagon.

A loss could spell the end of her career; and if it is, fans can always look back at a career that produced moments like these...

3. Submitting Julianna Pena

When Shevchenko debuted for the UFC in late 2015 against Sarah Kaufman, women's flyweight did not exist yet, so like most women, she was forced to play her trade as a bantamweight. But a lack of size did not hinder her, as she rode her top-tier Muay Thai skills to claim a split decision.

One fight later, she was opening the main card of the blockbuster known as UFC 196 opposite Amanda Nunes. She lost by split decision, but her competitiveness convinced fans that she would become a top contender again sooner than later.

Those hopes were realized when she outmaneuvered and outlanded former champion Holly Holm in her next fight - a main event assignment on Fox. Now suddenly a member of the 135-pound elite, she just needed to defeat one more person to get herself a rematch with Nunes: The Ultimate Fighter 18 winner Julianna Pena.

That fight, which was her second straight Fox headliner, almost ended in a loss. Shevchenko was brutalized with knees in the clinch and almost ended with an armbar in the first round, but she regained her composure in the second and got an armbar with the final minute. With that, she cemented herself as the undeniable no. 1 contender.

2. Knocking out Jessica Eye with a head kick

Of course, that bantamweight title shot at UFC 215 ended in defeat. But by then, another significant event was on its way: the introduction of women's flyweight. Just five months after her second loss to Nunes, Shevchenko went 10 pounds south and demolished Priscila Cachoeira to make a statement.

She would capture the title ten months after that fight; and for her first defense, she drew Jessica Eye at UFC 238. Like Shevchenko, Eye had been forced to ply her trade as a bantamweight, but returning to her natural division seemed to have revitalized her: she won three straight fights within a year to cement herself as the most viable challenger.

Much can be said about that streak, like how it was not exciting, as the division and the fights in it were perceived at the time; but a streak is a streak, and she deserved the shot. Unfortunately, not even wearing a bulletproof vest in the build-up to the fight could save her.

Shevchenko was a massive favorite in the fight as always, and she proved why in the first round. She dismantled her less-heralded challenger with body kicks and takedowns in the first. Then, in the second, after landing another body kick, she baited Eye into thinking that a fourth was coming, then went high - her left leg connecting flush to the temple.

Eye was out cold right then and there; no follow-up shots were needed. To many, especially the women's flyweight division, this was a message: the champion was here to stay, and reign for a very long time.

1. Pounding out Jessica Andrade

As said before, Shevchenko had seven defenses in her reign; some impressive, others uneventful. However, her demolition of Jessica Andrade at UFC 261 is easily the apex of them all.

By 2020, fans were already starting to perceive her reign as boring. After the knockout of Eye, Shevchenko returned to the Octagon only two months later to headline an Uruguay card against Liz Carmouche, who had scored a controversial doctor's stoppage win over her back in 2010. That fight played out more like her unsuccessful bantamweight title bid - drawn out and lacking in action.

The next opponent after that was Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 247, and she was overmatched despite her size advantage, eventually succumbing to a crucifix TKO. Fans recognized that women's flyweight needed a reason to be watchable, and they got an answer at a Fight Island card that October.

Andrade, coming off her second loss to Rose Namajunas at strawweight, decided to try her luck in the bigger division and drew Chookagian. She needed only a few strikes to the body to end the fight in one round, allowing het to completely jump the queue.

Suddenly, fans had a reason to think women's flyweight would become watchable. Here was an undersized yet ferocious powerhouse with finishing ability the likes of which had seldom been seen in a division then-widely derided as a land of "decisionators". If she won the title, it would usher in a golden age, or so they thought.

Shevchenko, however, was not one to be intimidated by such notions. At the fight itself, she proved why - easily taking down Andrade in the first round and keeping her there. She did it again in the second and started delivering pain in the form of elbows from the crucifix until a wound opened and the referee had to intervene.

And just like that, the excitement dissipated. It would not come back until UFC 275 the following year, when Shevchenko narrowly defeated Taila Santos; and it would not be realized until UFC 285, when Grasso finally ascended to the throne.