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Valentina Shevchenko Plans Active Title Reign, But Has ‘Unfinished Business' with Amanda Nunes



The UFC introduced the women’s flyweight division with Season 26 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” but after Nicco Montano claimed the inaugural crown, the belt went undefended for nearly a year.

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There were a variety of circumstances that led to Montano’s inactivity (she was eventually stripped of the title), but as the newly-crowned champion, Shevchenko vows that things will be different in 2019.

“I don’t care who will be my next opponent. I’m ready for anyone,” Shevchenko said at the UFC 231 post-fight press conference. “This is what I want to do: to defend the belt as much as I can. I’m healthy now – I didn’t get any hard injuries. Just go straight to the busy work again. I don’t want to spend the time saying, ‘OK, I’ll keep the belt for a year, doing nothing and just say hello to the media and show the belt.’ No.

“I want action. For me, that’s more important. I had to wait on my opponent, who was holding the belt. Now I’m the champion and I can choose the date and we’ll start everything.”

As soon as the women’s flyweight division was unveiled, Shevchenko was anointed the division’s uncrowned champion. To reach that status, she had to dispatch an old muay Thai rival in Joanna Jedrzejczyk. While the former UFC strawweight queen stayed in the fight, Shevchenko always seemed to have an answer for everything her Polish opponent did in the Octagon.

“It was everything I was expecting from Joanna,” Shevchenko said. “I knew it would be a good fight and a tough fight, because she’s a tough opponent. She doesn’t give up easily. I’m happy to get the belt from this kind of a fight – when you’re facing a real opponent, not just any opponent. When you get it from a real fight, only this way you can prove you’re a real champion.”

While Shevchenko plans on being an active flyweight champion, she won’t rule out an eventual return to 135 pounds. After all, she still has a score to settle with bantamweight queen Amanda Nunes, who defeated Shevchenko via split decision in a closely-contested title bout at UFC 215. How quickly Shevchenko returns to bantamweight could depend on the progress of her sister, UFC flyweight competitor Antonina Shevchenko.

“My thoughts on it, I will keep this belt [while] she goes all the way to the No. 1 contender, and then I will see what I’m going to do,” Shevchenko said. “Because I still have unfinished business with my opponent at bantamweight [Nunes]. I know exactly I never lost that fight, and she knows that she was not the winner of that fight. And we’ll see, we’ll see. Just waiting for my sister, when she climbs up to No. 1.”

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