The reigning women’s flyweight champion appears to have her next opponent lined up.
A women’s flyweight title bout is on deck for UFC 275.
MMA Fighting reported on Tuesday that reigning champion Valentina Shevchenko and #5 ranked contender Taila Santos is expected to take place on the June 11th pay-per-view. No location has been confirmed but Ariel Helwani says Singapore is the frontrunner.
Shevchenko (22-3) has a half-dozen title defenses since winning the vacant belt over Joanna Jedrzejczyk back at UFC 231 in December 2018. She has scarcely been challenged in any of her title fights and only Jennifer Maia was able to take a round off of her. Shevchenko’s most recent outing saw her stop Lauren Murphy at UFC 266 last September. In her other appearance in 2021, Shevchenko thrashed Jessica Andrade by second-round TKO at UFC 261.
Santos (19-1) is on a four-fight winning streak after dropping her UFC debut by split decision to Mara Romero Borella. After stringing together unanimous decisions over Molly McCann, Gillian Robertson, and Roxanne Modafferi, the Brazilian dominated and submitted Joanne Wood in the opening round of their UFC Vegas 43 bout last November. That win earned her Performance of the Night honors and evidently secured her a title shot.
UFC 275 will feature a light heavyweight championship bout between reigning titleholder Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka.