Shevchenko Calls Dropping to Strawweight ‘A Serious’ Weight Cut, Also Eyeing Bantamweightĭuring the fan Q&A earlier this month, Shevchenko spoke about cutting down to strawweight.

“For me, Valentina, I consider her as the GOAT of women’s MMA,” Esparza continued. Had that not happened, I could see the fight – I mean it was a very close fight, I could have seen it go the other way, but at the end of the day, Valentina got her hand raised.” I saw there was an accidental headbutt and she lost some vision. “I think she surprised a lot of people with how well she did especially in the first three rounds. “I thought Taila looked really awesome,” Esparza said. She battled Taila Santos earlier thing month at UFC 275 in Singapore, and although Santos pushed Bullet in more ways than fans are accustomed to seeing, Shevchenko edged the scorecards via split decision.Įsparza praised Santos’ performance, however she still sees Shevchenko as the greatest women’s fighter ever. Shevchenko is fresh off her seventh 125-pound title defense.

But yeah, that would be scary.”Įsparza Thinks Shevchenko Is the Greatest Female Fighter Ever It’s hard to say what a weight cut would do to her because that’s a little, you know, a bit to go. I mean, if you look at (Jessica) Andrade and Joanna (Jedrzejczyk), some of the most dominant strawweights in the division, they go up, fight her, and they get destroyed. I think that she would definitely put some fear in a lot of strawweights’ hearts. “Well, that would be scary,” Esparza said via the outlet. Although she hasn’t competed in the weight class before, Shevchenko said during a UFC 275 fan Q&A that “everything is possible.”Īnd if “Bullet” ultimately decides to try her hand at strawweight, she’ll “put some fear in a lot of strawweights’ hearts,” Esparza said. Namajunas II goes down this Saturday in Phoenix, AZ and MiddleEasy will be on-site for all of the coverage.Current UFC women’s strawweight champion Carla Esparza recently said it “would be scary’ if flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko dropped down and competed at 115 pounds.Įsparza sat down with MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn this week and during the interview, she gave her take on Shevchenko fighting at strawweight. If he can see me as beautiful no matter what, that’s all that really matters,” Esparza said.Įsparza vs. we’re just committing to each other so that is all that matters and I support whatever decision you want to make.’ To me that solidified it. I want to feel beautiful, I want to look beautiful.’ He was like ‘look, when I asked you to marry me I knew what I was getting myself into asking a fighter to marry me. “I went to him and I was like ‘I feel really stressed about this decision.because how I can go into the wedding. Everyone coming to the wedding, know what’s up and they won’t be like ‘that’s weird, where did that black eye come from?'” Esparza had supportĮsparza said she was very stressed out about the decision, but it was her fiancee that was the one to really help solidify the decision. He was like ‘I love you no matter what, black eyes and all. It was a big decision to make but fortunately my fiancee helped me come to the conclusion to keep. You can potentially go into a wedding with a nice belt and a black eye or you know, tore up. “But with this, it was like now you have a choice. “My reaction was, I have a choice to make, as opposed to if the wedding was a couple of weeks before, I would have been like I would have had to cancel it or if it was the day of the fight it would have been no question, I have to cancel the wedding.” With the fight, I think found out like two months ago,” Esparza said. “I’ve had this wedding planned for eight or nine months, so it’s been planned well in advance. On Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, Esparza explained how her title fight and wedding became so close together.

The following weekend, Esparza gets married. It has been a wild ride for both fighters with ups and downs, but they will finally meet this weekend. It is rematch eight years in the making, as Esparza defeated Namajunas for the inaugural strawweight championship. A post shared by Carla weekend, Esparza gets her long-awaited title fight at UFC 274 against Rose Namajunas.

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