5 biggest winners from UFC 266: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega

Alexander Volkanovski was last night's biggest winner following his successful UFC featherweight title defense

UFC 266: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega featured a number of epic-sounding fights on paper. In execution, it turned out to be one of the better events of 2021.

UFC 266 was filled with action largely from top to bottom. There were some tremendous fights on offer and some fighters picked up huge wins.

Yeah the boys! UFC champ @AlexVolkanovski w/ the celebratory shoey 🍺 👟 🇦🇺 #UFC266

Your move, @bambamtuivasa 👀 https://t.co/jdvnStjfAj

With some fighters moving into title contention and others picking up the biggest victories of their UFC careers, there was plenty to celebrate at the event.

Here are the five biggest winners from UFC 266: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega.

#5. Valentina Shevchenko – defeated Lauren Murphy to retain the UFC flyweight title

After her sixth straight UFC flyweight title defense, is Valentina Shevchenko becoming too dominant for her own good?

Reigning UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko once again proved her dominance last night. She stopped Lauren Murphy in the fourth round to retain her title.

The win was basically a by-the-book performance from ‘Bullet’. She comfortably beat Murphy in every area, never let her get comfortable or land any meaningful offense, and then finished her with some violent ground-and-pound.

That was ironic given Murphy's penchant for ground-based offense, but the truth is that Shevchenko made her look like an amateur at times.

Given that she remains the flyweight queen, why isn’t Shevchenko ranked more highly in this list? Simply put, ‘Bullet’ is, at this stage, edging closer to the point where she’s almost too dominant.

6️⃣th title defense in the books for @BulletValentina ✅

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Who can really challenge her at flyweight? She’s beaten most of the top-ranked contenders in the division, and another – Cynthia Calvillo – fell to a one-sided defeat last night against Jessica Andrade.

Realistically, the only fight that might make sense for Shevchenko would be a third clash with UFC bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes. However, it seems unlikely that the UFC would book that fight, given their second meeting was disappointing.

So while Shevchenko has to be seen as a winner, how she can get the fans interested in her next defense remains to be seen.