Laura Sanko loves Valentina Shevchenko teaching Nina-Marie Daniele iconic Superman punch before trilogy fight at UFC 306

Valentina Shevchenko has a potentially career-defining bout with Alexa Grasso at UFC 306: Noche this weekend.

‘Bullet’ faces Women’s Flyweight Champion Grasso in the co-main event on Saturday night at the futuristic $2bn Las Vegas Sphere.

Ahead of the history-making bout, the UFC’s first ever women’s trilogy fight, Shevchenko has been teaching popular MMA journalist Nina-Marie Daniele one of the sport’s most iconic moves.

The Superman punch is a blow that’s common across multiple combat sports, including Taekwondo, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts.

It’s a flashy and eye-catching strike that involves a fighter bringing their rear leg forward to feign a kick, then snapping the leg back while throwing a cross, resulting in greater power behind the punch.

The former 125lbs champion recently drilled the punch with Daniele and footage was shared by the model-turned-journalist to social media.

The Kyrgyzstani fighter first demonstrates how to hop forward with her lead foot.

The interviewer tries but initially struggles to get the hang of it.

“Do it seriously,” Shevchenko says.

Daniele eventually gets to grips with the move before the pair practice some kicks.

“Now you have perfect Superman punch,” Shevchenko encouragingly tells her student.

The MMA community caught wind of the video with UFC commentator Laura Sanko commenting: “Love it ….🔥 “ok but now do it seriously”.

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Flyweight contender Luana Santos posted three crying laughter emojis.

“I’ve seen enough. Give her Jon Jones,” joked another fan.

Shevchenko and Grasso will throw down for the third time on Saturday night on a fight card headlined by the men’s bantamweight title fight between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili.

36-year-old Shevchenko was the long-reigning champion at flyweight before Mexican Grasso dethroned her with a stunning rear-naked choke at UFC 285 last year to win the belt.

The pair fought for a second time in September 2023 in a bout that ended in a split draw.

‘Bullet’ was not happy with the judges’ decision, and later went off on what she thought was inaccurate scoring.

“But seriously, why are we talking about a third fight?” she said.

“It’s only because of the judge’s mistake in the second fight, Everyone saw that I was the winner. I did enough to win, like three rounds out of five. That’s why we’re discussing this trilogy. Everything I did worked; all my strategies were effective.”

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Grasso, meanwhile, is revelling at the chance to make women’s history at the weekend.

“Everything is going to be different,” she recently told talkSPORT MMA.

“First, because it’s like a theatre place. All the crowd is going to be one side, the cage will be in the middle and then a big, big screen.

“I was able to be in the Sphere one day to watch a show and wow! “

“It’s really huge, a really nice experience and a lot of technology in there.

“It’s gonna be huge. It’s gonna be history. I’m super-happy to be there making history.”