UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko is gunning for a return in August.
Shevchenko was scheduled to put her 125-pound gold on the line against Joanne Calderwood in June. Those plans went awry but it wasn’t due to the coronavirus pandemic. Shevchenko underwent surgery to repair a torn MCL.
Shevchenko Wants To Return In August
Shevchenko has made it clear that she’s all in for Dana White’s planned private island. She hopes to defend her championship at the end of the summer as she told MMAJunkie.
“Now I hope it’s going to happen sometime in the end of August, and why not – why not on the island?” Shevchenko asked. “It can be like a double great thing, and definitely, I love the idea of the island. I love it because on the island is going to be everything that a fighter needs, right? Because it’s going to be built specially for the UFC fights, for the UFC fighters. That’s why we will have all facilities that we need, and it’s going to be very easy to train, very easy to do everything.”
Shevchenko is coming off a TKO victory over Katlyn Chookagian. The win marked Shevchenko’s third successful UFC women’s flyweight title defense. She has also defended her gold against Jessica Eye and Liz Carmouche. Shevchenko captured the gold with a unanimous decision victory over Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Calderwood last competed back in Sept. 2019. She nabbed a split decision win over Andrea Lee. Calderwood has gone 3-1 in her last four outings. The lone loss was to Chookagian.
The UFC is hoping to return on May 9. Pressure from Disney, ESPN, and the state of California forced the promotion to postpone its planned April 18 bout. With things constantly changing amid the coronavirus pandemic, it’ll be interesting to see if the UFC can make its return as soon as the company hopes.
