Valentina Shevchenko explains how Julianna Pena can defeat Amanda Nunes at UFC 265

UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko explained how Julianna Pena can defeat women’s double champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 265.

Shevchenko and Pena fought at UFC on FOX 23 and Shevchenko won the fight in the second round by armbar, so they are very familiar with one another. Pena will next step into the Octagon this summer when she fights Nunes for her UFC bantamweight championship. Not surprisingly, Pena is the underdog at the sportsbooks and very few fans are giving her a chance to pull off the upset against Nunes, who is universally regarded as the greatest women’s MMA fighter of all time. But Shevchenko thinks there’s a chance.

Speaking to Middle Easy in a recent interview, Shevchenko said that she believes Pena can pose physical challenges to Nunes and says that her path to winning will be on the ground. In fact, “Bullet” believes Pena will have many opportunities to find her key to victory.

“I think it’s going to be a good fight, a very interesting fight to watch. It all depends what mental and physical conditions are going to be at that point, but I think it’s going to be a very interesting fight to watch,” Shevchenko said. “I think Julianna has a lot of chances, and definitely she poses a lot of physical challenges to Amanda, a lot of grappling maybe. This is what she’s going to do, right? She’s not going to stand with Amanda and strike with her and decide who has the stronger punch. I don’t think this is the idea of the fight, and I think she has a lot of opportunities to find the key for victory. It’s MMA, you never know what’s going to happen the next second.”

Do you agree with Valentina Shevchenko that Julianna Pena has the skills to make it difficult for Amanda Nunes at UFC 265?