Valentina Shevchenko reacts to Amanda Nunes ‘planning’ to go for 125-pound title
It has been a wild ride for Amanda Nunes in her MMA career.
Starting out as a top featherweight prospect in Strikeforce, once the organization was absorbed by the UFC she found herself as a top prospect as a 135-pounder.
Having only lost a single time inside the Octagon (10-1 UFC, 17-4 overall), Nunes has gone on to solidify herself as not only the greatest female bantamweight fighter of all time but the greatest of all time regardless of weight class.
After three successful title defenses at 135, Nunes would return to her original home of 145-pounds to try and capture the title against the woman she was being groomed to one day square off with. That woman
However, Nunes would do just that and do so in a phenomenal fashion as she needed only 51 seconds to dispatch of the dominant Cyborg at UFC 232.
Now the first-ever female dual-division champion, Brazil’s lone UFC champion has recently said she’s ‘done with 145’ and would like to pursue the 125-pound title.
Obviously, it’s hard to know exactly how serious Nunes may have been when saying this, but it caught the attention of the current UFC 125-pound flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko.
“Come on
Welcome to 125 #IfSheDiesSheDies” Shevchenko tweeted.
Shevchenko and Nunes are no strangers to each other whatsoever as the two have locked horns on two separate occasions. Both times saw Nunes walk away with her hand raised.
The first bout between the two came in March 2016 at UFC 196 when Nunes dominated Shevchenko over the course of two rounds before the Kyrgyzstan native rallied in the third and final round.
By the time that the two met again, Nunes had claimed gold and they would fight over it at UFC 215
The bout would go the full five rounds and be a razor thin decision that once again went to Nunes. Shevchenko would drop down to the 125-pound division after this fight where she’s gone 2-0 since and gained a title of her own.
Depending on how serious Nunes is or if Shevchenko may ever return to 135… Could we see a third fight between the champions one day?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/18/2019
