Valentina Shevchenko celebrates after defeating Lauren Murphy at UFC 266.

Valentina Shevchenko Dominates & Finishes Lauren Murphy At UFC 266

Valentina Shevchenko adds another dominant title defense to her resume 

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Las Vegas, Nevada once again tonight, September 25, 2021, for an incredibly stacked night of fights at UFC 266.

Headlining the event is Alexander Volkanovski, who is looking to defend his UFC featherweight championship for a second time tonight opposing No. 2 ranked contender Brian Ortega.

Co-headlining the event is perhaps the greatest female fighter alive, Valentina Shevchenko, who looks to defend her UFC flyweight championship for the sixth time against Lauren Murphy.

Our feature fight of the night came between former four-time Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz and former three-time UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler, a rematch of their 2004 clash.

Click here to see how that epic contest went down, and continue reading to see how Valentina Shevchenko versus Lauren Murphy went down:

Official Result: Valentina Shevchenko def. Lauren Murphy via TKO (punches & elbows) at 4:00 of round four

Round 1

Both the champion and challenger come out throwing confidently, up until the champion lands a hard check hook as Murphy was coming in.

The entire round was spent with Shevchenko picking Murphy apart quite handily, up until she body lock trips her at the end of the round.

Round 2

Murphy seemingly pays for it every time she tries to close the distance, she just doesn’t seem to have much for the champion, as most of us expected. Shevchenko then takes her down again toward the middle of the round and remains on top for the remainder of it.

Round 3

This fight is slipping away from Murphy more and more as the minutes go on. Every time she tries to strike, she gets hit. Every time she tries to close the distance, she gets hit. It’s not a brutal pounding, but after three rounds it’s a clear 30-27 for the pound-for-pound queen.

Round 4

Shevchenko hurts Murphy badly with a check right hook, followed by a left head kick and a barrage of about ten more punches. She now has her pushed into the fence, and next slams Murphy to the ground.

About a minute later Shevchenko is able to get some violent elbows going and that was all she wrote. ‘The Bullet’ has made a successful sixth defense of her UFC flyweight championship.

author avatar
Brady Ordway
I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!