Valentina Shevchenko

Valentina Shevchenko says Amanda Nunes trilogy fight is ‘inevitable’

Valentina Shevchenko is set for her second flyweight title defense. There, she takes on Liz Carmouche in the main event of UFC Uruguay. Should she win that, the question of what is next for her is up in the air. The division is still figuring out new contenders, but there is one big fight out there for her.

That fight is the Amanda Nunes trilogy fight. Of course, Nunes beat Shevchenko both times, one by split-decision that many though the now flyweight champ won. Yet, fighting the Brazilian is not her focus or goal right now.

“All I can say is that my goal right now is to fight in my weight class because I was waiting for a long time to fight in my natural weight class,” she said on BJPenn.com Radio. “You saw I was fighting these bigger opponents, taller than me, and of course it affects your game a little bit, but even having all this trouble, I was feeling strong enough to fight at 135 [pounds] in the bantamweight division. But now I want to be in my natural weight class because it finally happened and I can do my thing here.”

Even though it is not her goal or focus, Valentina Shevchenko admits she believes it will happen. They are both dominating their division and it seems unlikely anyone will beat them for a while. Given that, it could come to a time that they are out of contenders where they must fight. But, the flyweight champion believes the trilogy fight is something that will happen in the future. Just not now.

“The fight against Amanda, you know, I think it’s gonna happen sometime in the future but not because she wants it or I want it, it’s just gonna happen,” Shevchenko said. “I just believe it’s gonna happen sometime in the future.”

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Cole Shelton
Cole Shelton covers MMA for BJPenn.com, MMANews, and MyMMANews.com while also being the lead MMA odds writer for Sports Betting Dime