Valentina Shevchenko believes that certain history is affecting former UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk heading into their title fight. The two UFC stars are slated to co-headline the UFC 231 pay-per-view event. They will fight it out to see who will be crowned the UFC women’s flyweight champion.
For those who may not know, Shevchenko holds three victories over Jedrzejczyk in Muay Thai. Thus, she brought this history up during a recent interview with MMA Fighting.
“She can say that it’s not affecting her, but yes — it’s affecting her,” Shevchenko said of her victories over Jedrzejczyk. “We are saying sometimes that fighters can say whatever, but what they are feeling inside is totally different. And it’s affecting everything. It’s affecting everyone, for sure.”
The former women’s bantamweight title contender was supposed to fight Nicco Montano for the UFC women’s flyweight title in the co-main event of UFC 228. But this fight got canceled once it was revealed that Nicco Montano was hospitalized for kidney function issues. Thus, they made the title vacant and got a new opponent for Shevchenko.
“I don’t think that it will be much different,” Shevchenko said of how this fight will play out compared to their previous fights. “Of course, she is going to feel healthier, because she doesn’t have to cut. But I don’t think it’s gonna be much different for me in the face of Joanna. Of course, she will have more energy, but it doesn’t matter for me.”
Things Have Changed
The UFC 231 pay-per-view is set to take place on Saturday, December 8, 2018 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Shevchenko did admit that their previous fights were years ago. However, that doesn’t prevent her from having an edge coming into their next fight.
“Of course it was years ago,” Shevchenko continued. “Of course she changed, she improved as a fighter, same as me. I’ve improved as a mixed martial arts fighter. But at the end of the day, in the final it doesn’t matter. All experience, it will help. And each experience I get from that fight, it will help me to win this fight.”
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