Valentina Shevchenko thinks 'TUF 26' was a mistake for women's flyweight

LOS ANGELES – One of the first questions asked Valentina Shevchenko was whether she was confident that her fight would take place.

Of course, Shevchenko (15-3 MMA, 4-2 UFC) answered yes. This is a question that would not normally appear – but nothing in his recent career has been normal.

The champion of the UFC Women's Flyweight title has waited almost all this year to make her way to the belt.

She arrived a few days later to fight for this at UFC 228 when her long-awaited opponent, the first champion, Nicco Montano (4-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC), retired in reason for a missed weight loss.

Now facing former lightweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk (14-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC), an opponent three times in the Thai Muay Thai, Shevchenko is two weeks away from home. another golden opportunity. She is excited about what will happen. She also thinks that her whole situation could have been avoided.

"I think it would have been a better idea from the start to fight for the title and have the champion from the start, and then do reality TV to build the 125 pound weight clbad," said Shevchenko, referring to the season "The Ultimate Fighter 26" which crowned Montano as first champion. "At that time, we could have avoided all this mess if the champion, who is a fake champion, did not want to fight and was trying to find reasons to escape the fight, and we could see that one year, there was no movement in 125. "

Montano was stripped of the title after being unable to fight and the UFC quickly booked a fight between Shevchenko and Jedrzejczyk.

It was not the end of the drama, though. The promotion competing for a poster at UFC 230, an attempt was made to advance the fight for a month. Jedrzejczyk rejected the request and Sijara Eubanks was briefly installed as Shevchenko's opponent.

At one point, Shevchenko raised her hands to the sky and told her team that she would fight with anyone at any time, provided she could fix a date.

"I was tired of hearing about this mess – I just wanted to fight," she recalls. "I'll do my part, I'll go to the gym and you'll tell me when you'll be ready and tell the date and the opponent, no matter who, I'll be ready."

Eventually, the UFC enlisted the two division champion, Daniel Cormier, to face Derrick Lewis, and Jedrzejczyk and Shevchenko were booked for their original date.

The journey was long and strange to reach its desired destination. But the worry is over for Shevchenko. She does not expect further delays in her new clbad.

"The 125-pound division will be the most interesting division to watch and the most active," she said. "Because we can see from 115 pounds, a lot of girls will go up, and 135, they will go down to 125. It will be a kind of division where all the actions will be."

There was quite a bit of action outside the cage. Shevchenko is eager to get there where it counts.

For more information on UFC 231, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.