Shevchenko defended her UFC title for the fourth time at UFC 255, here’s a look at exactly how she dominated the latest challenger to her belt.
Heading into UFC 255, Valentina Shevchenko had defended the UFC women’s flyweight title three times since winning the vacant strap in December 2018 with a decision victory over former women’s strawweight queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Shevchenko made it four defenses on Saturday with a unanimous decision win over Jennifer Maia.
At this point in her career, Shevchenko has reached the level of dominance where a lost round feels like a notable slip-up. When Maia had success in the second stanza, scoring a takedown and racking up 4:33 of control time, the UFC commentators wondered if Shevchenko’s reign was about to end.
It wasn’t and it didn’t. In the final three rounds, the champ scored three takedowns and out struck Maia by a count of 161 to 48. All three judges awarded the fight to Shevchenko with scores of 49-46.
After her win, Shevchenko said she was looking ahead to her next test in the 125-pound division.
“I don’t choose my opponents,” Shevchenko said at the UFC 255 post-fight press conference. “Whoever will be in front of me (is) who I’m going to face. For me, it doesn’t (make) any difference, Andrade or someone else, someone else, or whoever. I think it would be fair to have Andrade vs. Lauren Murphy because Lauren Murphy showed her strengths and has a lot of wins, like, straight wins.
“But the question (is) if I want to wait that much. I don’t want to wait that much because I was waiting a lot already and I’m not agreeing to wait more (for) their fight (to happen) and (then) they have to recover. It’s going to be a few months from here. I’m ready to go back to the octagon as soon as I feel good and I feel good.”
Below are the final fight stats for the UFC 255 matchup between Shevchenko and Maia.