After three impressive title defenses, flyweight champion Valentina
Shevchenko will put her belt on the line for the fourth time
Saturday against Brazilian Jennifer
Maia in the co-main event of UFC
255.
Maia, a former Invicta champion, isn’t fazed by being a huge
underdog against the champion.
“For everything she has done in the sport that’s totally natural.
But that challenge just motivates me to show the fans how much I
evolved,” Maia recently told Sherdog.com.
Maia revealed that she received some valuable advice from UFC
two-division champion Amanda
Nunes, who owns a pair of victories against Shevchenko in the
Octagon.
“We have a friend in common and I asked him if he could talk to
Amanda. She was so nice and sent a very long message to me. It was
funny that at the end she apologized for the long message. So
cute,” Maia said.
“Basically she told me to not let Valentina be comfortable leading
the fight and impose my rhythm. She is very intelligent and reads
your game plan very well, mainly when you keep doing a similar
sequence. And we worked pretty hard to bring some surprises to
her.”
According to Maia, cardio will not be an issue in the title
fight.
“In that aspect we are pretty similar,” she said. “If you see all
three of my five-round fights in Invicta, you will see that I also
grow [stronger] in the final rounds.”
After having problems on the scales twice in the UFC, the
32-year-old guaranteed that she will hit 125 pounds on the nose
come Friday.
“After I changed the professionals that took care of that, I kept
my weight lower and never had a problem to reach that weight
anymore and that’s what’s gonna happen in the most important fight
of my life,” she said.
CHUTE BOXE SPIRIT: Edcarlo Monstro, Maia’s husband
and head coach, revealed that they had their own Shevchenko in
Curitiba, Brazil.
“I have an athlete here, Alyson Murilo, who studied all of
Valentina’s fights and started to copy all her movements and style.
She did a great job and helped Jennifer a lot,” said the former
Chute Boxer, who added that he invited many girls from different
local teams to support Maia on sparring days.
As one of the main sparring partners at Chute Boxe for both
Mauricio
Rua and Wanderlei
Silva during their Pride heydays, Monstro believes that “Chute
Boxe spirit” will also be an important factor for Maia at UFC
255.
“It´s amazing the way she absorbed the Chute Boxe spirit from me.
The harder the fight is, the more she shows her big heart and grows
in the fight. We had a great camp and you can expect a war,”
Monstro said.
Maia herself gained extra motivation from the knowledge that she
will share the main card with “Shogun,” who is slated for a rematch
with Paul Craig
on Saturday.
“When I started to train, I remember that we joined everybody in
the academy to see Shogun´s fights. I could never imagine to be
doing a co-main event on the same card of one of the greatest idols
of Chute Boxe ever,” she said.
Maia also took a moment to reflect on the early days of her MMA
career, when her parents didn’t want her to be a fighter.
“The beginning was so hard,” she said. “My family had no idea what
MMA was and they just wanted me to go to college, but I followed my
dream and today, thanks to MMA, I can financially help my parents
and was able to finish my degree in physical education.”
REMATCH TALK: Jessica
Andrade’s impressive knockout of Katlyn
Chookagian in her flyweight debut at UFC Fight Night 180 on
Oct. 17 opens up the possibility of a rematch between Andrade and
Maia. Maia defeated Andrade by unanimous decision at a regional
event in Brazil on Dec. 15, 2012.
“Jessica did an amazing job against Chookagian and of course a
second fight between us [is] a possibility, but I wouldn’t consider
it as a revenge since I defeated her back in 2012,” Maia said. “In
eight years we both improved a lot and we are totally different
fighters so, in case we fight again, it would be a totally
different fight. Imagine how great it would be if we could make
that fight happen in Curitiba. But that’s something we could think
in the future. Now my main focus is to fight the champion.”