5 Things You Might Not Know About Valentina Shevchenko

A high-risk, low-reward assignment greets Valentina Shevchenko’s move to the Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s flyweight division.

After a failed bid to procure promotional gold as a bantamweight, the Kyrgyzstani kickboxer will downshift to 125 pounds to meet undefeated newcomer Priscila Cachoeira at UFC Fight Night 125 this Saturday at Guilherme Paraense Arena in Belem, Brazil. Shevchenko has compiled a 3-2 record inside the Octagon, albeit against stellar competition: Wins over Sarah Kaufman, Holly Holm and Julianna Pena have been offset by her two losses to reigning bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. The 29-year-old Pavel Fedotov protégé last competed at UFC 215 on Sept. 9, when she dropped a five-round split decision to the aforementioned Nunes, the defeat snapping her modest two-fight winning streak and putting her championship aspirations on hold.

As Shevchenko approaches her confrontation with Cachoeira, here are five things you might not know about her:

1. She could not have prepared herself any better for hand-to-hand combat.

Shevchenko holds the Master of Sport designation in five different disciplines: muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, taekwondo and judo.

2. She benefitted from a head start on her contemporaries.

A seasoned mixed martial arts veteran whose handlers wasted no time shuttling her into high-level competition, Shevchenko made her professional debut as a 15-year-old on April 21, 2003. She stopped Eliza Aidaralieva on second-round punches at a Kyrgyz Federation of Kulatuu event.

3. Her passport has gotten a workout.

Shevchenko has fought in 11 different countries over the course of her career as a boxer, kickboxer and mixed martial artist. They are the United States, Canada, Peru, South Korea, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Thailand, France and the Netherlands. Brazil will be the 12th.

4. One-dimensional she is not.

Though known for her standup prowess, Shevchenko has proven to be just as capable on the ground. She has delivered six of her 14 victories by submission: three by rear-naked choke, two by armbar and one by Ezekiel choke.

5. Sometimes the numbers do not add up.

Shevchenko has been outstruck in four of her five UFC appearances, according to FightMetric data: 142-66 against Kaufman, 66-56 against Nunes, 78-46 against Pena and 90-85 against Nunes in their rematch. She did outperform Holm across five rounds and by a wide margin, 119-73, in the UFC on Fox 20 main event in July 2016. Just more proof that not all strikes are created equal.