UFC women’s bantamweight Valentina ‘The Bullet’ Shevchenko fights Amanda Nunes on the main card of UFC 196 on Saturday. It is only Shevchenko’s second fight in the UFC; her first was a split decision win over Sarah Kaufman, in a fight ‘The Bullet’ took on eight days notice.
Shevchenko has a delightful habit of dancing her way to the ring.
However, at the UFC 196 weigh ins, she was all business.
Nunes is on a tear, with a bonus performance winning tapout via choke of Sara McMann in her last fight, and a first round stoppage via strikes of Shayna Baszler before that. However, Shevchenko has a 56-2 professional record in Muay Thai/K-1, beating Joanna Jedrzejczyk for example, three times. And she started fighting in MMA in 2003, and holds a 13-1 record. Her sole loss was to Liz Carmouche in 2010.
Shevchenko is Kyrgyz, of Russian descent, and lives in Peru. Her mother Elena is the head of Muay Thai her homeland; she and her older sister Antonina have been practicing Muay Thai since they were five.
Valentina serves as a Sport Is Your Gang ambassador in Peru, using Muaythai to teach grossly underprivileged boys and girls self-respect and respect for others. She knows that the character developed through combat sports leads to a better path.
“[Muay Thai] is a beautiful kind of martial art, and means much more than just a fight between two athletes in a ring,” she told The World Games website when she was named Athlete of the Month. “There are so many aspects, like the history and the culture which are part of our sport.
And she has some advice for kids beginning Muay Thai (and life) – Not to be afraid of defeats which are sometimes inevitable.
Odds for the fight are extremely close, with Shevchenko just a +106 underdog.
As you can see, The Bullet can hit …
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