After a hard-fought victory in the UFC 315
co-main event, Valentina
Shevchenko wasn’t in a rush to think about her next title
defense.
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“Bullet” earned her 10th victory in a championship bout on Saturday
at the Bell Centre in Montreal, edging French contender Manon
Fiorot via unanimous decision to maintain her place atop the
flyweight division. Shortly thereafter, reigning strawweight queen
Weili
Zhang entered the Shevchenko sweepstakes.
“Congratulations to the champion,” Zhang wrote on Instagram.
“Everything has line up perfectly, it’s destiny.”
However, Shevchenko wasn’t so interested in immediate matchmaking
at Saturday’s post-fight press conference.
„It’s kind of for me after the fight you get the victory, the belt
is with you, and you still have adrenaline running and everything
like that, to answer the exact question, I would prefer to take it
with one of two days when I will rest,“ Shevchenko said. „I don’t
say about the timing because it’s very important to have proper
recovery and go to the next training camp with full power.”
While Zhang presents an intriguing champ vs. champ matchup,
Natalia
Silva has emerged as a serious contender within the flyweight
division. The Brazilian won her seventh straight UFC bout on
Saturday, confounding ex-champ — and Shevchenko rival — Alexa
Grasso for three rounds in a clear-cut decision win.
“Sometimes you doubt yourself, but I proved to people that I am
here, and I am going to be a champion. And I’m going to be
different champion,” Silva said in a backstage interview with the
UFC. “They’re gonna see my legacy, and people are gonna know my
story.
“I’m ready. I’m next. I’m prepared for this. Alexa just had a
trilogy with the current champion right now. I just had a great
fight against Alexa. It just shows people, that I’m ready, I’m
prepared and I’m gonna go for that title.”
Shevchenko proposed an interesting option to determine her next
challenger.
„Everyone was saying Weili or Natalia for No. 1 contender,“
Shevchenko said. „Maybe fans can play some role in that and if they
can join my OnlyFans page and drop some messages on who they want
to see me fight next. I think we’ll compare and see who’s next.”