Valentina Shevchenko Officially Dropping to Flyweight to take on Newcomer, Priscilla Cachoeira

Initially reported as in the works by Luciano Andrade of Combate, the rumored bout between Valentina Shevchenko and Priscila Cachoeira is on as confirmed by the UFC.

Many of fans and spectators had assumed that once the UFC inevitably created a 125 lb Flyweight division of their own that Valentina “Bullet” Shevchenko would be one of the first big name fighters to make their way to the weight class. And they weren’t wrong. The Kyrgyzstan born former Muay Thai champion, Shevchenko wasn’t the biggest Bantamweight in the world and found great success in the division despite being one of the smaller fighters. She has fought in the division earlier in her career as well so she should have no trouble going back.

Her first opponent back at 125 will be the Brazilian newcomer, Priscila Cachoeira who holds a professional record of eight wins with no losses. Cachoeira was initially supposed to make her debut against Lauren Murphy at The Ultimate Fighter 26 Finale, that was until she ran into some late visa issues that pulled her out of the fight thus bumping it to UFC 218…but then Sijara Eubanks missed weight for the Inaugural Flyweight title fight which shook everything up by taking Roxanne Modaferri out of her fight with Barb Honchak to replace Eubanks and Murphy stepping in to replace Modaferri. A crazy occurrence, I know.

Cachoeira has fought almost all of her fight at or around the 125 lb limit and a win over the incredibly talented and top-ranked Bantamweight, Shevchenko will catapult Cachoeira right into title contention.

Shevchenko is coming off of a razor-thin split decision loss in a rematch against Bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes, a fight in which Shevchenko believes she won. Now looking on to pursue a new title, Shevchenko will put her aspirations of becoming the 135 lb champion on hold.

The fight will take place on February 3, at UFC Fight Night 125 in Belem, Brazil.

on 12/12/2017