Valentina Shevchenko Opens The Door For Potential Kayla Harrison Showdown

Valentina Shevchenko has her own massive matchup lined up for later this month but the flyweight queen also recently took time to address some recent comments from Kayla Harrison. Shevchenko will defend her 125 pound crown against the former strawweight titleholder who vacated her belt for the chance to become a two division UFC champion, Zhang Weili. This superfight will transpire in the co-main event of UFC 322 on November 15th.

While Weili has the chance to possibly enter that rarefied air of two division champions in UFC history, Shevchenko might potentially punch her ticket to her own opportunity at the same legacy move if she wins inside Madison Square Garden next week. Harrison is set on fighting Amanda Nunes next on an undisclosed date and mentioned an interest in figthing someone like Shevchenko at the Summer 2026 White House card.

Speaking with Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, ‘The Bullet’ addressed the recent comments made by the UFC bantamweight champion, as Shevchenko said,

“Kayla is a very good fighter, very strong physically, and definitely it would be a great fight. But I’m not looking past my fight. You know me—I always focus on the challenge right in front of me. My challenge is UFC 322. We can come back to this question after the fight.”

Valentina Shevchenko, her prior bantamweight history, and the amanda nunes factor

Valentina Shevchenko has carved out a path as the best women’s MMA fighter at flyweight but she also did some incredible things at bantamweight. She had a pair of exciting fights with Amanda Nunes and while Nunes bested Shevchenko both times, many thought their rematch could have easily gone to Shevchneko on the scorecards as well.

The sequel clash with Nunes led to Shevchenko moving down to flyweight with little talk of any kind of cross divisional super fight between the two champs emerging. It turns out Shevchenko does still somewhat think of a trilogy affair with Nunes as Shevchenko said [via MMA Junkie],

“For a long time, [Nunes] was the only reason why I would return to 135. It was just one name, unfinished business what I had with Amanda. When she retired, I lost interest for that, and now, let’s see. The rumor is that she’s un-retired, but let’s see if it’s a reality.”