Valentina Shevchenko believes the Ultimate Fighting Championship will pursue a third instalment to her rivalry with Amanda Nunes.
Shevchenko’s only losses in her UFC career came from the ‘The Lioness.’
The women’s MMA rivals first fought at UFC 196 in 2016, where the Kyrgyztan native suffered a unanimous decision loss.
More than a year later, the two went to an all-out war for the bantamweight title in their rematch at UFC 215, with Nunes reasserting her mastery over Shevchenko with a split decision victory
Since that defeat, ‘Bullet’ made a return to women’s flyweight division and has won four-straight wins including a title-clinching victory and two-straight title-defences.
Next month, she will once again attempt to retain her crown as she co-headlines the UFC 247 fight card opposite Katlyn Chookagian.
Ahead of this title-retention bid, Shevchenko reignites talks on a potential trilogy fight with Nunes, saying it will happen sometime in the future.
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Third Fight
In a recent interview with The Score, the reigning flyweight queen insisted that ringside judges made a mistake on scoring the second fight.
Shevchenko is confident a third bout with Nunes will take place in the future, saying she will be more than ready to face the two-weight champ again.
“I don’t know. This year, next year, when. But as I mentioned before, I think the third fight is going to happen sometime in the future. I don’t know when,”
“I’m not thinking about it right now because I have a lot of things to be worried about in my own weight class, flyweight.”
“Of course, after the last fight against Amanda, the result was totally wrong, totally wrong. People want to see a third fight.”
“I think it’s not about what I want, it’s not about what she wants, it’s behind the lights.”
“It’s going to happen somewhere, someday. I don’t know when. And when it happens, I will be ready.”
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Heavy Favourite
Shevchenko will march int0 UFC 247 co-main event fight as the heavy favourite but Chookagian would be no easy opponent.
The American mixed martial artist is coming off a two-fight winning streak, scoring a pair of decision wins against Joanne Calderwood and Jennifer Maia respectively.
Chookagian is currently 6-2 in the UFC, with all her victories came by way of decision.
A brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the flyweight contender may be lacking knockout power but her quality striking and strong grappling skills could help her pull off an upset.
Who do you think will win the UFC 247 co-main event fight? Can Valentina Shevchenko make it five in a row?
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(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko)