The reigning women’s flyweight champ will face the former strawweight titleholder in April.
Valentina Shevchenko’s next title defense is now confirmed for the spring.
Dana White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that the reigning women’s flyweight champion will take on former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade at UFC 261 on April 24th.
Shevchenko (20-3) is a perfect 6-0 in her division, with only two rounds lost out of 22. One of those rounds came in her last fight against Jennifer Maia, who put up a good effort but otherwise still clearly lost 49-46 across the board back at UFC 255 in November. Shevchenko won the vacant championship against Joanna Jedrzejczyk in 2018 and her run of dominance has also included last year’s TKO of Katlyn Chookagian and that spectacular head kick KO of Jessica Eye in 2019.
Andrade (21-8) won the 115 lbs belt from Rose Namajunas with her memorable slam KO back in 2019. Her first title defense saw her quickly relinquish the title to current champion Zhang Weili in China. Before heading up to 125, Andrade lost a three-round split decision to Rose Namajunas, but was sparkling in her first-round dispatching of Katlyn Chookagian last October. With an upset over Shevchenko, she’d join fellow Brazilian Amanda Nunes as the only women to ever win UFC titles in multiple weight classes.
Other fights lined up for UFC 261 include a rescheduled middleweight bout between Chris Weidman and Uriah Hall, as well as a light heavyweight matchup involving former title challenger Anthony Smith and Jimmy Crute.