This Saturday, July 8, UFC Bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes headlines UFC 213. She makes her second defesne of the title, this time taking on an opponent she defeated in 2016, Valentina Shevchenko. In this preview feature, let’s take a look at a specific part of Nunes’s career - her losses. For each of the four career losses she’s suffered, let’s break down what caused the loss, what she learned from it, and how it might relate to Saturday’s fight.

#1 - Ana Maria (1-1) def. Amanda Nunes (0-0), Submission (Round 1, 0:35)

Mar. 8, 2008 - Prime MMA Championship 2 (Watch Here)

THE OPPONENT: Maria is a Brazilian fighter from Team Nogueira. She fought in Brazil against some decent opponents and would ultimately go 5-5 in her career - Nunes is her only win of note. She has not fought since 2014.

WHAT HAPPENED: An aggressive fighter since day 1, Nunes started this fight hot, dropped Maria, then followed her to the ground where the more submission savvy Maria caught her with an armbar.

LESSON: Nunes learned to calm herself down here and not be overly aggressive with a grounded opponent. She would blow her next 3 overmatched opponents out of the water with ease, but when she faced Vanessa Porto and Ediane Gomes in 2009/2010, both fights ended up on the ground. Nunes was much more cautious, playing a slower ground game so that she would not make this mistake again.

RELEVANCE TODAY: None. Nunes was green and made a clumsy mistake. It happens. Considering she’s since been in the cage with both Tate and Rousey and has not been submitted again, I think we can write this one off.

#2 - Alexis Davis (10-4) def. Amanda Nunes (6-1), TKO (Round 2, 4:53)

Sep. 10, 2011 - Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov (available on Fight Pass)

THE OPPONENT: Davis is probably best known for being slammed into unconsciousness by Rousey, which is a shame as she is a very good fighter. She came in here off a win over veteran Julie Kedzie and would follow this win up with a 5-1 run that led her to Ronda. This was a definite step up for Nunes.

WHAT HAPPENED: As she does, Nunes swarmed, but this time, her opponent didn’t go away. Davis survived the early attack and started wearing on Nunes, attacking her cardio with a more grinding offense. She also showed better technical striking than Nunes perhaps anticipated. Nunes tired in the 2nd and Davis took advantage, taking her down and pounding her out.

LESSON: The need for cardio. Nunes was playing a Wanderlei Silva game here, going hard, hard, hard to start, and it had worked well until now. But here she learned that you have to be ready to deal when someone doesn’t go away in that attack.

RELEVANCE TODAY: Notable. Nunes has since gone 3 rounds and won (against, of course, Shevchenko herself), but you would be within your reason to question how her cardio will hold up in a 5 round title fight. Davis played a smart, strategic game, and it worked. Her strategy could be imitated, and to a degree, it was in loss #4.

#3 - Sarah D’Alelio (6-3) def. Amanda Nunes (7-2), UD (30-26 x 3)

Jan. 5, 2013 - Invicta FC 4 (available on Fight Pass)

THE OPPONENT: D’Alelio is still active with an 11-7 record currently. This was pretty much her peak. Nunes remains her best win, and at the time, her only losses were to Shayna Baszler, Ronda Rousey, and Julie Kedzie. But she followed this win up by dropping 3 straight and losing all momentum.

WHAT HAPPENED: Wrestling happened. This was your classic wrestler grinding out a striker win. D’Alelio took her down, rode her, and never let up. Highlights were some nasty knees to Nunes’s thigh that looked to really hurt. The 10-8 came from a frustrated Nunes kicking a downed D’Alelio in round 2 and losing a point.

LESSON: The writing was on the wall for Nunes with this one - improve your wrestling. And she did. Despite the loss here, she got the call up to the UFC for her next fight, and she won her next two partly by getting it to the mat and using ground and pound. But she has not since faced an opponent with as determined a wrestling game as D’Alelio showed.

RELEVANCE TODAY: You would think that since Shevcheko is a Muay Thai champion, this wrestling based win is not of relevance. But Shevchecnko has a surprising wrestling game. It’s not as good as D’Alelio’s, but it could cause some troubles. Even if Shevchenko herself can’t capitalize, this fight may not bode well for Nunes’s title run and overall career. This division is not filled with grinding wrestler types, but if that is someone Nunes finds herself against, this fight could be a bad predictor for the champ.

#4 Cat Zingano (8-0) def. Amanda Nunes (9-3), TKO (Round 3, 1:21)

Sep. 27, 2014 - UFC 178 (available on Fight Pass)

THE OPPONENT: Zingano was undefeated at the time and was on the fast track to Rousey. Her last fight was her breakout win over Miesha Tate, but she came into this after a 17 month layoff for knee surgery. This win would propel her to a title fight, though she’s just 0-1 since that loss to Rousey.

WHAT HAPPENED: In a lot of ways, this one is similar to the Davis fight. Nunes comes to win in the opening round, but Zingano uses solid technique to avoid the storm and stay alive. In this one though, Nunes’s round 1 attack comes on the mat, as she uses aggressive ground and pound to try and close things out early. In round 2, Zingano changes her strategy, focusing on her own offensive wrestling. She grounds the tired Nunes and dominates her on the mat in rounds 2 and 3, eventually pounding her out.

LESSON: This was a tough loss for Nunes, who now found herself looking at a 3-3 run in her last 6. The holes in her game were obvious at this point - she didn’t have the cardio, and she was being outwrestled. And while she had made some advances in wrestling after the D’Alelio fight, Zingano showed the same holes were there. Nunes very wisely changed camps after this, switching to ATT. She is undefeated since the move.

RELEVANCE TODAY: Quite a lot. This was similar to what we saw in Nunes vs. Shevchenko 1, with the opponent taking advantage of a tired Nunes and outwrestling her. In the Shevchenko fight, that didn’t happen until round 3, but it still happened. It’s clear that her time at ATT has significantly improved Nunes - Saturday’s fight may be the one to test just how much it has closed the gaps Zingano (and Davis, and D’Alelio) exposed.

Join us here at Bloody Elbow Saturday night for live fight night coverage of UFC 213: Nunes vs. Shevchenko II.