Valentina Shevchenko believes she’s living in the best possible time to be a martial artist.
When the UFC first came on the scene in 1993, athletes were often characterized by their specific skills. For some, it was Sumo. For others, it was boxing, combat sambo, or jiu-jitsu. Hell, even legendary brawler David ‘Tank’ Abbott described his style as pitfighting while competing inside the Octagon.
But today, MMA encompasses all of those styles, to some extent, and Shevchenko thinks that’s pretty damn cool.
“You know, we’re now living a dream of some great persons, great athletes, who were dreaming about a universal martial artist—that would be, like, contain all techniques, and the fighter would be so universal and would not have any problem to use any technique they want,” Shevchenko said during Wednesday’s UFC 322 media day in New York.
“Now, every fighter who fights in MMA is a universal fighter, and we can choose what tactic or technique to use. We don’t have a problem to fight with kicks, we don’t have a problem to fight with hands. MMA fighter has to be the perfect fighter: kicking, striking, grapple, wrestling, everything. This is the best dream of anyone…
“Modern fighters, they don’t have to start with some martial arts and then join another; they already started to train MMA. It’s a short, short way to become a superstar in exactly MMA as a style, and I’m very happy that I am living at the right time, in the right place, and I can show my skills that I developed during all 32 years of practicing martial arts. This is what I call the art and the beauty of fighting.”
When it comes to women in mixed martial arts, it’s hard to imagine anyone else being at the top of the all-time list other than Shevchenko.
Now a two-time flyweight world champion, ‘Bullet’ will put her gold up for grabs against another former two-time titleholder, Zhang Weili, at UFC 322 — a contest Daniel Cormier is already touting as the “greatest female fight of all time.”
Zhang vacated her strawweight strap earlier this year, specifically to move up from 115 and challenge Shevchenko for her 125-pound crown.
Overall, ‘Magnum’ is 10-2 under the UFC banner, her only losses coming against ‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas. Since then, she’s won fights in a row, including back-to-back second-round finishes against Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Carla Esparza.
