Athletes
Shevchenko Seeks To Restore Order To The Flyweight Division
Former Champion Out To Reclaim Gold And Return To Dominating The 125-pound Weight Class At Noche UFC
Valentina Shevchenko stood atop the flyweight division for 1,547 days, amassing the second longest championship reign amongst female champions in UFC history and the seventh longest title run, overall.
Then, on March 4 of this year at UFC 285, it suddenly, surprisingly came to an abrupt end.
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Late in the fourth round of a fight she was winning against Alexa Grasso, the 35-year-old champion threw a spinning back kick she’s delivered hundreds of thousands of times. She missed the target and instantly Grasso was on her back, attacking her neck. Seconds later, the pressure became too much to bear, leaving Shevchenko no choice but to tap.
A 1,547-day reign brought to a close in less than 45 highly eventful seconds.
“My viewpoint is that this is MMA,” Shevchenko said this week when asked to share her thoughts on what transpired the first time she and Grasso shared the Octagon, just days before the duo run it back in the main event of Noche UFC this weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “This the fight game, where you have to be very focused from the beginning to the end; you’re not allowed to do any errors in your game.
“It’s only showing how dangerous and strong the sport is by itself,” she added. “This is sometimes what happens.”
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While these things do sometimes happen in MMA, they didn’t happen to Shevchenko for multiple years and through multiple championship fights, which is what made Grasso’s victory in March all the more surprising.
From the moment she touched down in the flyweight division, the standout from Kyrgyzstan dominated, mauling Priscila Cachoeira in her divisional debut before posting 49-46 scores across the board against Joanna Jedrzejczyk to claim the vacant title at UFC 231. Shevchenko was so far and away ahead of her competition that Jennifer Maia winning a round in their championship clash at UFC 255 set Twitter alight because, up until that point, no challenger had managed to do so.
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She followed up that victory by trucking Jessica Andrade, who was expected to be her toughest test to date, and then battering Lauren Murphy for four-plus rounds before the fight was mercifully brought to a halt. She was unmatched, unchallenged, and it didn’t seem like anyone was even going to come close to unseating Shevchenko from her throne.
But that started to change last summer, when she faced off with Taila Santos in the co-main event of UFC 275.
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Although she came away with the title still wrapped around her waist, the Brazilian challenger was more than competitive, winning three rounds on one of the judges’ scorecards and garnering two frames on the other, with the momentum of the fight seemingly shifting after an accidental clash of heads that Santos clearly got the worst of in the moment.
It was easily the closest anyone had come to dethroning the flyweight queen, until Grasso did the unexpected six months ago, prompting some to wonder if Shevchenko’s days of being a dominant force and unmatched in the 125-pound weight class had come to a close.
“I am here to show they are wrong,” she said, addressing one of the prominent questions that hovers over Saturday’s championship rematch. “It’s not about the age — it’s about approach, your lifestyle.
“If you have the right lifestyle, you’re going to extend your fight career. If you’re going to do crazy things, it will shorten it, but I’m a fighter — I will fight as long as I’m healthy and I will fight for a long time.”
Many times in these situations, fallen champions speak about a renewed hunger derived from becoming the hunter after years of being hunted. They wax lyrical about the pressures of being champion, the challenge of constantly having to get up for everyone’s best, fight after fight, and are quick to outline all the things that have been ramped up and refreshed now that they’ve been knocked from their perch atop their respective divisions.
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There is none of that with Shevchenko. Instead, the former champion looks at things in their totality, framing her current position in terms of the entirety of her career — and her life, really — rather than turning her defeat in March into a defining moment that ushered in a wave of changes.
“I am a martial artist from the roots; I was born to be champion,” began this weekend’s title challenger. “My (resume speaks for itself): 17-time Muay Thai world champion, seven title defenses in the UFC. For me, there is no life as not the champion.
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Valentina Shevchenko Fight Week Interview | Noche UFC
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“You’re not taking pictures with the belt before the fight, but you don’t just get rid of your champion character,” continued Shevchenko, whose seven consecutive successful flyweight title defenses are the most ever by a female champion and tied for fifth all-time with featherweight legend Jose Aldo. “You cannot get rid of all the achievements you did before.
“It’s unfair and not right to say I feel differently. I’m definitely in a different position, but in my soul, I am this champion who is a very dangerous fighter, strong fighter, and I will bring that energy and power with me into the fight.”
Just as she will not say she feels differently despite entering without gold around her waist for the first time in five years, Shevchenko does not put any greater value on a victory this weekend either, looking at a potential win as equally important as all the others, and something special in and of itself.
“Every single fight is very important for me. It’s unfair to say some fight is more important than another fight — it’s not right; that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Every single fight is important by itself. You can create a movie from a single fight — how you approach the fight, how you train, all this stuff, and that’s why it’s like a little history about one single fight.”
That is why Shevchenko sees Saturday as her opportunity to correct a mistake and restore order to the flyweight division.
“My goal is the same: to dominate the (flyweight) division. (Losing the title was) a little step back, but nothing big. I’m gonna fix it this Saturday and continue doing the same I was doing for years.
“I feel amazingly strong, very motivated, very prepared; it’s my moment. Saturday is going to be my day.”
Zac Pacleb contributed to this story
UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs Shevchenko 2 took place live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 16, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
