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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strawweight titleholder, Jessica Andrade, hasn’t even made her first title defense and she’s already planning for a champion vs. champion “super fight” against reigning flyweight titleholder, Valentina Shevchenko.
Someone should gently remind “Bate Estaca” that she’s facing the 19-1 Weili Zhang in the UFC Fight Night 157 five-round main event, scheduled for this Sat. night (Aug. 31, 2019) inside Universiade Sports Centre in Shenzhen, China.
“After I win on Saturday, I will ask to face Valentina,” Andrade told BJPenn.com. “I think Shevchenko is one of the best girls in all of the divisions. She’s faced Joanna [Jedrzejczyk], Amanda [Nunes] and I believe it would be a great test, so this is what I want, hopefully by the end of the year or beginning of the next year.”
Shevchenko (18-3) came up short in two separate fights against reigning women’s bantamweight titleholder, Amanda Nunes, and has since dropped down to the flyweight division, where “Bullet” promptly captured four straight wins, picking up the 125-pound title in the process.
As for Andrade (20-6), she’s competed as high as bantamweight, but was unable to compensate for her height and reach disadvantage, prompting a move down to the strawweight class, where she now rules the 115-pound roost.
But would a win over Zhang be enough to earn a Shevchenko super fight?