Valentina Shevchenko and Demetrious Johnson make their flyweight GOAT cases ... for each other - ESPN

When Valentina Shevchenko steps into the Octagon late Saturday night at UFC 315, forgive her if she does a double-take. She will look across the cage and see, for the first time in just shy of three years, an opponent not named Alexa Grasso. Shevchenko is finally moving on from her co-star in a historic trilogy that pinballed the women's flyweight belt back and forth. In this weekend's co-main event in Montreal, she will put the strap on the line against Manon Fiorot (ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET).

It feels weird to call this Shevchenko's first title defense, because, at 37 years old, she has ruled the 125-pound division for a great majority of the division's eight-year existence. But along with being matched with a new dance partner, she now is cast in an unfamiliar role of newly crowned champ looking to renew the old magic.

A fresh start, one might call it. A new beginning.

One might call it those things — if one were not 24-4-1 Valentina Shevchenko.

«It's definitely not a new beginning,» Shevchenko told ESPN last week. «I would say it's a journey continuing. We cannot disregard all the experience and start everything from zero, not at all. All of the experiences that I have had — even when I had to struggle a little bit — it just made me a stronger version of myself. So no, not a new beginning, just continuing on the same beautiful journey of martial arts.»

Shevchenko's martial arts journey has indeed been a thing of beauty. Starting when she was a teenager in Kyrgyzstan, she won eight Muay Thai world championships in just over a decade. She still was a teen when she made her debut in MMA and scored finishes in her first seven professional fights. Soon after joining the UFC in 2015, Shevchenko collected victories over a