Valentina sends Holly home
Chicago, July 24: A traumatic start at Valentina Shevchenko’s training camp didn’t deter her from pulling off another shocking upset in the UFC women’s bantamweight division.
Shevchenko, from Kyrgyzstan, stunned Holly Holm on Saturday night at UFC Chicago, unanimously outpointing the former UFC champion.
Less than two months ago, Shevchenko was at a chicken restaurant in Lima, Peru, when it was raided by armed robbers. Her trainer, Pavel Fedotov, was shot in the abdomen during the robbery. He has recovered and was in Shevchenko’s corner Saturday.
Fedotov pushed Shevchenko to continue to train for the fight.
“It was a very different camp than I had to endure in all my life,” Shevchenko said. “After two days when he (Pavel) was in the hospital he said, you should take this fight and prepare. It doesn’t matter what happened.”
Fighting for the first fight since losing the belt to Miesha Tate at UFC 196, Holm had losing scores of 49-46 from all of the judges.
Her stunning knockout of then-champ Ronda Rousey in Australia at UFC 193 catapulted Holm (10-2) into the spotlight of mixed martial arts, but she followed with the back-to-back losses.
“I know I’m capable of more. I think I just need to believe in myself a little more. Like I said, I know I can do more. I didn’t perform well tonight. Valentina is really tough, we know that,” said Holm. “It’s not like I haven’t been taught the right things, it all comes down to my performance, it wasn’t great tonight.”
Shevchenko (13-2) put herself in the mix to contend for the women’s bantamweight title at 135 pounds that is held by Amanda Nunes. — AP
VALENTINA SHEVCHENKO, from Kyrgyzstan, stunned Holly Holm on Saturday night at UFC Chicago with a unanimous decision against the former UFC champion.
FIGHTING FOR THE first time since losing a title fight to Miesha Tate at UFC 196, Holm had was scored 46-49 by all of the judges.