Athletes
Valentina Shevchenko | A Journey Of Love
Flyweight Queen Discusses Love Of Martial Arts Ahead Of The First Title Defense Of Her Second Championship Reign
When Valentina Shevchenko walks out to the Octagon on Saturday night to defend her flyweight title against Manon Fiorot in the co-main event of UFC 315 at Bell Centre in Montreal, she will become just the fifth athlete in UFC history to compete in a dozen or more consecutive championship fights, joining Georges St-Pierre, Demetrious Johnson, Jon Jones, and Amanda Nunes.
It’s a rare achievement that further underscores the brilliant career the 37-year-old from Kyrgyzstan has enjoyed, and is another accomplishment that further cements the legacy she has built as one of the greatest fighters in UFC history.
But for the two-time champion, it’s something she will only truly sit with and appreciate once her career is over.
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“It means a lot of rounds!” She said with a laugh when asked what the achievement means to her, just a few days prior to her clash with Fiorot. “It’s a lot of training!
“It means that every single fight has made me more powerful and more powerful,” continued Shevchenko, shifting from well-timed comedy to more earnest reflection. “Comparing myself to a few years ago, now I feel much more technical, much more faster, much more stronger, and this is the best feeling. You really know your body so well that you can do whatever you want.
“When you are an active fighter, you definitely value them, you definitely honor them, but you cannot just look up to them like ‘this is my trophy’ because when you’re an active fighter, you don’t allow that. You have to move forward. It’s a fight, it’s real, so you have to be in the moment.
“It definitely means a lot, but to truly focus on what achievements you have, you’re only able to do that when you’re done-done.”
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And Shevchenko is far from being done-done.
Last September, “Bullet” reclaimed the flyweight title with a one-sided decision win over Alexa Grasso in their third consecutive meeting, correcting what she and many others felt was a wrong that occurred in the judging of their second bout the previous year.
Valentina Shevchenko | Top Finishes
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Valentina Shevchenko | Top Finishes
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While Grasso had positive moments in the main event of the inaugural Noche UFC card at T-Mobile Arena, most anticipated that when the scorecards were collected, totaled, and read aloud, Bruce Buffer would boom “And New,” Shevchenko having done enough to reclaim the throne.
Instead, the fight was scored a draw, and Grasso left as champion, which seemed to irritate Shevchenko from that night all the way through to their trilogy bout in September. Having “righted the wrong,” so to speak, I asked about the added prickliness she exhibited ahead of that contest, and if there was a little push to remind everyone who the true champion was during her third bout with Grasso.
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“Not at all, not at all,” she answered with a smile. “I didn’t have all these feelings.
“I know people who know me, who watch my fights, who really understand what martial arts is, they knew who I was, so I didn’t have to remind anyone. It’s definitely good when things are the right way.”
For Shevchenko, being on top of the division is genuinely what feels right to her, and not in an arrogant, conceited way either.
Born into a martial arts family and having competed in some manner or another since she was five years old, the decorated champion has never held a “just happy to be here” outlook on her craft.
“It means a lot because, for me, every time it was my main goal,” she said when asked what it means to once again sit atop the flyweight division, a spot she held for 1,547 days prior to losing to Grasso at UFC 285 in March 2023, good for the seventh longest reign in UFC history.
“It’s not just ‘have fun’ during fight week, during the competition,” continued Shevchenko. “For me, everything is simply to be the best; to be the champion.”
As much as that sounds like a fairly basic statement and a sentiment that would be shared by most that pursue a career inside the UFC Octagon, it lands differently coming from the two-time champion, whose entire life is built around training, competing, and growing as a martial artist.
There is a pointedness to her declaration, a sharpness that again underlines that this isn’t a hope or dream for her; this might be the only thing that matters to her, at least professionally, and candidly, it’s not even necessarily something she finds enjoyment in pursuing.
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“I would say it’s very hard to find the right word for this,” began the thoughtful champion when asked if she enjoys training, competing, and working to show, time and again, that she is the best fighter in the 125-pound weight class. "It’s not ‘enjoy’ how you enjoy a quiet evening, watching a beautiful movie, drinking some hot chocolate, nice and cozy; it’s not this type of enjoyment.
“It’s not enjoyment when you have to wake up early in the morning and you know it’s going to be a hard training session in front of you,” she added, speaking with a seriousness that makes it clear that she knows the weight of all the sacrifices and struggles that come with wanting to be at the top of her division. “You have to put your mind together, because you know you’re gonna be beaten, you know you’re gonna be sore, you know you’re gonna be hurt and you have to hurt people as well — I don’t know if you can really name it ‘enjoy.’”
So why does she continue to put herself through all of it?
“Because I love martial arts,” she answered, a smile quickly coming to her face. “Martial arts, for me, is my life; I was born to do these things.
UFC 315 FULL FIGHTS: Muhammad vs Edwards 2 | Della Maddalena vs Burns | Shevchenko vs Murphy | Fiorot vs Namajunas
“This is our life, as fighters, how we are made; what we have to pass to become our best version, and I definitely know that every time I have to pass these struggles, these challenges, I’m reborn as a better person, as a better version of the fighter, as a better version of myself.
“This is the passion that I enjoy the most about martial arts,” she added. “It’s not only ‘enjoy the moment,’ but it’s enjoy the path, enjoy the journey of being a martial artist.”
This weekend, that ongoing journey brings her to Montreal, where she will finally share the Octagon with Fiorot, the French standout who has been waiting in the wings since earning a unanimous decision win over Erin Blanchfield last March that stamped her as the No. 1 contender.
After biding her time as Shevchenko and Grasso resolved their series, “The Beast” was quick to press the champion to hustle back, urging her to sign the contract for this fight and give her the championship opportunity she’s been seeking for the last couple of years now.
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“Something similar to ‘be careful what you wish for,’ something like that?” clarified Shevchenko when asked if there is a motivation to show Fiorot that she’s asked for something that she perhaps isn’t really ready for in agreeing to face her this weekend. “Yeah, definitely.
“Everyone wants to fight for the title. I don’t know any fighter that joins the best MMA promotion and says, ‘I’m here to hang out.’ No, Goal No. 1 is to fight for the title and everyone definitely is trying to rush it.
“But good,” she added with a cunning smirk, “I like people that try to rush things.”
When asked about her opponent and what she brings to the Octagon this weekend that Shevchenko needs to be prepared to deal with, the playfulness evaporated, quickly replaced with the steely focus and “leave no stone unturned” analysis that has become the trademark of the two-time champion.
WATCH: Valentina Shevchenko's Fight Week Interview
“Every opponent and every preparation is different, every fighter has their own fight style,” began Shevchenko. “Once I signed the contract for this fight, to fight Manon, we started to analyze her fight style.
“At this level of competition, you can’t only say, ‘She’s a striker and she will only go strike-wise.’ You know that in MMA, you have to expect everything. We are speaking about wrestling, grappling, striking. Yes, she has stronger sides, and she prefers to take fights standing up, but that doesn’t mean you disregard everything else.
“That’s why the goal is simple: be ready for everything and be yourself; be the ‘Bullet’ and take this fight to victory,” she added. “As soon as you see a finish, finish the fight and do your job.”
There may not be anyone that truly embraces this life, truly commits every part of their being to being the best martial artist possible than Shevchenko.
It’s her everything, and it’s why, even with an established legacy and little else to prove inside the Octagon, she’s still looking forward to seeing where this journey takes her next.
Check Out Valentina Shevchenko's UFC Unrivaled Fight Kit
“Whatever life will bring to me; I’m open to many opportunities,” she said when asked what else she wants to achieve as she keeps pushing forward. “Being a martial artist since Day 1 when I was born — since five years old, I’ve done fighting, I’ve done martial arts. It’s more than just sport — it’s tradition; it’s a family tradition because my mom, my sister, we all love martial arts.
“I want to do as much as I can here.”
UFC 315: Muhammad vs Della Maddalena, live from Bell Centre in Montréal, Québec, Canada on May 10, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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