Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Pound-for-Pound Women

2. Valentina Shevchenko

My personal pick for No. 1, Shevchenko comes in at second. An outstanding counter-striker with highly technical kickboxing, Shevchenko also developed some of the very best grappling WMMA has ever seen, able to repeatedly pick up and slam elite wrestlers like Liz Carmouche and Jessica Andrade, and finish foes with either ground-and-pound or a submission. Additionally, she has fantastic cardio and is one of the most brilliant fighters, male or female, showing outstanding patience and decision-making at all times and implementing clever game plans with discipline and detail. Despite being very undersized for the 135 pound weight-class, she had considerable success there and began her career 12-1, with only an early loss at 22 years old due to a cut against Liz Carmouche. Her debut fight in the UFC was against highly skilled veteran Sarah Kaufman, for which she was an underdog, but Shevchenko clearly won, despite one bizarre judge's card having it for her opponent. In her second fight, she faced Amanda Nunes and lost a competitive bout on the cards, two rounds to one. Shevchenko would then beat two opponents at their own games, first outstriking and outsmarting Holly Holm to take a decision and then submitting the dangerous grappler Julianna Pena.

That garnered her a rematch against Nunes, this time for the world championship. Despite the massive size difference in favor of Nunes, I and a majority of viewers felt that Shevchenko defeated the champion, but Nunes retained via split decision. Shevchenko then dropped down to her natural weight class, 125 pounds, where she was no longer the smaller fighter, and hasn't lost since, going 9-0, including seven title defenses and counting. That includes a five-round domination of fellow top 5 all-time legend Joanna Jedrzejczyk to win the crown, knockouts of Jessica Eye, Katlyn Chookagian, Lauren Murphy and Jessica Andrade, gaining revenge against Liz Carmouche with an easy five-round decision, a decisive decision over Jennifer Maia, and a very close split over Taila Santos in her last outing, indicating that at 34, the rest of the division may have finally caught up to her. Regardless, she's had a superlative career and still has plenty of fights left. I wouldn't be surprised if more people consider her the greatest ever a few years from now.

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