"Look at her face! Her nose is rose" - When an enraged Valentina Shevchenko lashed out at judges after losing to Amanda Nunes
Former UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko is a dominant force in women's MMA. The only woman to beat 'bullet' inside the octagon before Alexa Grasso was the former two-division UFC champion Amanda Nunes and she did it twice under the UFC umbrella.
While Nunes convincingly defeated the Kyrgyzstan native in their first showdown, the second fight at UFC 215 was a closely contested affair that Nunes won via split decision [48-47, 48-47 and 47-48].
The rematch marked the second defence of Amanda Nunes' title reign as a UFC champion and there were a lot of unanswered questions about the 'Lioness's Cardio. However, she benefited from her superior grappling and managed to pull off the win on the scorecards.
Shevchenko, who deserved the judges' nod according to a large section of the MMA community, did not take kindly to the decision. She launched a scathing attack on Amanda Nunes in the octagon interview. In Valentina Shevchenko's words:
"I really don't understand why the victory went to the other side! For two takedowns? For all five rounds? She didn't hit me ONE TIME! not one punch… Nothing significant… Look at her face… Her nose is ROSE… Her nose is RED… From all my punches! And why she stole [the victory] I really don't understand."
Shevchenko drew attention to the work she did from the bottom position after getting taken down and stated:
"I hit her very hard from the ground position, from the bottom position and I really don't understand why!"
Shevchenko argued that Nunes did not do much in the striking department other than landing a few light leg kicks. She then stormed out of the cage.
You can watch Valentina Shevchenko's UFC 215 octagon interview from the 03:10 mark of the video below:
Valentina Shevchenko did not taste defeat for half a decade after losing to Amanda Nunes
Right from her UFC debut in December 2015 until her most recent appearance at UFC 285, Amanda Nunes remained the only fighter to defeat Valentina Shevchenko inside the UFC octagon.
'Bullet', who had a significant size disadvantage in the bantamweight division, made a move down to flyweight division following the second loss to Amanda Nunes.
Shevchenko went 9-0 at flyweight and became the undisputed champion by defeating Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 231. She defended the title seven consecutive times, which is the most by a female champion in the UFC women's divisions.
The division eventually caught up with the 35-year-old as she suffered her first defeat at flyweight against Alexa Grasso. As the tradition goes, a dominant champion usually gets an immediate rematch following the title loss. Valentina Shevchenko will attempt to recapture the flyweight throne at UFC Fight Night 227 on September 16, 2023.