"That would be scary!" - Carla Esparza on the idea of Valentina Shevchenko moving down to strawweight
Carla Esparza has addressed the possibility of UFC women’s flyweight (125-pound) champion Valentina Shevchenko moving down to the UFC women’s strawweight (115-pound) division.
Shevchenko is coming off a split decision victory over Taila Santos, whom she defeated at UFC 275 on June 11. Following her victory at UFC 275, 'Bullet' suggested that although the weight cut would be challenging, she won’t rule out a future move to strawweight.
During an interview with MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn, Carla Esparza was asked about Shevchenko potentially moving down to her division. Esparza, who’s expected to defend her UFC women’s strawweight title against Zhang Weili later this year, responded by stating:
“Well, that would be scary!” Esparza laughed and continued, “She’s a beast, for sure. And I think that she would definitely like, put some fear in a lot of strawweights’ hearts. And, I mean, like, because if you look at [Jessica] Andrade and Joanna [Jedrzejczyk] – some of the most dominant strawweights in the division – they go up, fight her, and they get destroyed."
Nevertheless, ‘Cookie Monster’ insinuated that cutting all the way down to 115 lbs might hamper Shevchenko’s performance inside the octagon. Indicating that this could work against ‘Bullet’ at strawweight, Esparza said:
“So, I mean, it’s hard to say what a weight cut would do to her because that’s a bit to go. But yeah, she’s; that would be scary.”
Watch Carla Esparza discuss Valentina Shevchenko’s potential move to strawweight at the 11:55-minute mark in the video below:
Stephen Thompson believes Valentina Shevchenko should face Taila Santos in a rematch
Valentina Shevchenko has asserted that she’ll probably defend her title against the winner of the upcoming Lauren Murphy-Miesha Tate matchup scheduled for UFC 276 on July 2.
Furthermore, Shevchenko has hinted at potentially competing at strawweight or alternatively return to the bantamweight (135-pound) division in the future.
BREAKING: The UFC have a plan to potentially make Lauren Murphy vs. Miesha Tate at #UFC276 on July 2nd.
🚨BREAKING: The UFC have a plan to potentially make Lauren Murphy vs. Miesha Tate at #UFC276 on July 2nd.
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In an edition of the What's Up Everybody?! podcast, UFC welterweight star Stephen Thompson weighed in on the closely-contested Shevchenko-Santos matchup.
'Wonderboy' alluded to the fact that Valentina Shevchenko has a pair of decision losses to fellow MMA legend Amanda Nunes at bantamweight.
He opined that apart from a trilogy fight against Amanda Nunes at bantamweight, only the Santos rematch would likely be a tough test for ‘Bullet’.
Calling for a Shevchenko-Santos rematch, Thompson said:
"I think they should rematch. I thought it was close enough to where they should run it back and there may be talks about that. I don't know what her [Shevchenko's] opponent's saying at this point... I mean, who else is Valentina gonna fight besides Nunes?"
Watch the full video below: