Valentina Shevchenko is not the UFC ladies’s flyweight champion.
The UFC introduced Saturday through the promotion’s UFC Paris broadcast that Shevchenko has vacated the 125-pound championship after struggling an undisclosed damage that’s anticipated to maintain her sidelined for as much as a yr.
The surprising announcement brings an finish to Shevchenko’s second reign as UFC ladies’s flyweight champion and instantly creates a brand new alternative for 2 of the division’s high contenders.
Silva vs. Wang for vacant title
With Shevchenko unable to compete for an prolonged interval, the UFC has booked Natalia Silva vs. Wang Cong for the vacant ladies’s flyweight championship at UFC 332 on October 3.
The struggle will headline the occasion on the Delta Middle in Salt Lake Metropolis, with the winner turning into the most recent fighter to assert the UFC’s 125-pound crown.
Silva enters the matchup with a formidable résumé. The Brazilian is 20-5-1 total and 8-0 contained in the UFC, and he or she has established herself as one of many division’s most constant contenders. Her current run contains victories over former champions Rose Namajunas, Alexa Grasso and Jessica Andrade.
Wang, in the meantime, brings a 10-1 skilled file into the largest alternative of her profession. She has received 4 consecutive fights and can now have an opportunity to seize UFC gold regardless of being significantly much less skilled in championship-level UFC competitors than Silva.
One other chapter in Shevchenko’s exceptional profession
The title emptiness is a disappointing growth for Shevchenko, who had reestablished herself as one of many dominant figures in ladies’s MMA.
“Bullet” regained the flyweight championship in September 2024 by defeating Alexa Grasso by way of unanimous determination. She subsequently defended the title in opposition to Manon Fiorot earlier than including one other main victory in opposition to former two-time strawweight champion Zhang Weili.
Her victory over Weili was significantly important, tying Shevchenko with Amanda Nunes for probably the most ladies’s UFC title-fight victories on the time. A deliberate struggle with Silva would have given Shevchenko a possibility to maneuver forward of Nunes on that checklist.
As a substitute, Shevchenko will now be pressured to look at the division she dominated for years crown a brand new champion.
Will Shevchenko get one other title alternative?
Though the fast way forward for Shevchenko’s profession stays unsure, stories point out that the previous champion is anticipated to obtain a title alternative when she is wholesome and able to return.
That might make the upcoming Silva-Wang championship struggle much more intriguing. Whoever leaves UFC 332 with the belt may ultimately discover themselves defending it in opposition to one of the vital completed feminine fighters in UFC historical past.
For now, nevertheless, the ladies’s flyweight division enters a brand new period.
Valentina Shevchenko is and not using a belt, and on October 3, Natalia Silva and Wang Cong will struggle for the chance to turn out to be the following UFC ladies’s flyweight champion.
