"She beat her with one eye" - Taila Santos not getting the nod against Valentina Shevchenko was "horrible", says UFC champion
Valentina Shevchenko successfully defended her UFC women’s flyweight title against Taila Santos at UFC 275. However, according to Julianna Pena, the Brazilian fighter did enough to beat the reigning title holder.
During her interview with The Schmo, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion went on record to say that Santos beat Shevchenko with one eye compromised:
“I had Taila winning, she beat her with one eye… I definitely thought that Talia did enough to win and I was disappointed that she didn’t get the nod.”
The UFC women’s flyweight championship fight served as the co-main event of UFC 275. The fight went to its 25-minute mark with Valentina Shevchenko scoring a split decision victory and defending her title. This shocked many in the MMA community, as the widespread consensus was that Santos should be awarded the first three rounds due to her dominance with takedowns and submission attempts.
At one point during the bout, an accidental headbutt broke the Brazilian’s orbital bone, affecting her vision in one eye. However, she was able to go through the entire five rounds with the reigning champion.
Watch Julianna Pena talk about Taila Santos vs. Valentina Shevchenko below:
They've got title shots for less - Julianna Pena backs Miesha Tate for shot at Valentina Shevchenko
Julianna Pena has a history with Valentina Shevchenko, as they fought at UFC on Fox: Shevchenko vs. Peña back in 2017. She knows what it takes to fight the women’s flyweight champion, and she’s sure that her fellow Washington fighter Miesha Tate will be next in line for a title shot.
During the same interview with The Schmo, Pena stated that Tate will win her fight at UFC 276 and that will put her in title contention:
“I mean, I wouldn’t say no. You know what I mean, there’s things that have happened, they’ve gotten title shots on lesser things so she goes out there she makes a statement, she makes a splash, I don’t see why not, because you know there’s not a whole lot of other girls in the division that I see calling for Valentina and Miesha has not been shy about that.”
Miesha Tate was supposed to make her flyweight debut against Lauren Murphy at UFC 276 next week. The bout was initially scheduled for UFC on ESPN: Błachowicz vs. Rakić, but it was moved to UFC 276 due to undisclosed reasons. The same happened most recently as, during the UFC Vegas 57 broadcast, it was announced that the bout was scrapped from UFC 276 without any particular reason cited for the same.
Tate retired in 2016 after her decision loss to Raquel Pennington at UFC 205. She returned almost a year ago at UFC on ESPN: Makhachev vs. Moisés, where she defeated Marion Reneau. 'Cupcake' lost her last fight to Ketlen Vieira at UFC Fight Night: Vieira vs. Tate.