UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko has been in the headlines ever since she successfully defended her gold against Lauren Murphy at UFC 266. As she has almost cleaned out the flyweight roster, there have been calls to see her fight bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes.
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After she said she wouldn’t put on muscle for that fight, Joe Rogan put forward the example of Jon Jones’ decision to bulk up for his heavyweight bow.
Shevchenko responded, “I think we will know the answer only when he will fight in this weight class. And we will know exactly how it’s gonna affect him. Will it be good for him or bad for him? So we don’t know, as I say, every person is different.”
She added, “And I know how my body works. I know what is good for me, what is bad for me, Israel Adesanya. He knows exactly the same about his body type. Jon Jones, he knows exactly about himself. So this is everyone’s approach and I think everyone should do what they think it’s gonna help them to win.”
As the 33-year-old believes that 125 lbs is her natural weight, she won’t make any changes, even for the blockbuster trilogy fight against her rival Amanda Nunes. It remains to be seen if that will affect her inside the octagon if she meets ‘The Lioness’
Is Valentina Shevchenko the greatest of all time?
With an amazing record of 22-3, ‘Bullet’ is one of the most prominent names in the UFC. She has suffered only two UFC defeats-both to Amanda Nunes. While the first fight was a unanimous decision, many believed that the split verdict in the second fight was controversial.
Subsequently, Shevchenko, who was 3-2 at bantamweight, moved down to the flyweight division. She became the flyweight champion in 2018 and has defended her belt six times. ‘Bullet’ even rose to #2 in the women’s pound-for-pound rankings.
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While she is a UFC great, as she has the longest title defense streak among active fighters, she’ll need to beat Nunes and snatch the tag of the greatest in the eyes of the fans.
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Is not putting on weight the way to go? What do you make out of Shevchenko’s words?
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