Is Valentina Shevchenko basically fighting herself?
Some stats, courtesy of my friend and esteemed MMA writer Shaheen Al-Shatti:
Since moving back to FLW, Valentina Shevchenko is outstriking opponents by a significant strike margin of 234-100.
78% percent of those "strikes against" were from Joanna. Without her, that margin shrinks down to 145-22.
Valentina at 125 simply isn’t getting touched. #UFC247
— Shaheen Al-Shatti (@shaunalshatti) February 4, 2020
Re-read that last one again. Other than the fight against a high volume striker in Joanna Jedrzejczyk, opponents have landed just 22 strikes since Shevchenko (18-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) moved to flyweight.
At this point, you might as well get used to the idea that “Bullet” will rule the women’s flyweight division as long as Demetrious Johnson did on the men’s side of 125 pounds.
Unless she gets bored and loses focus.
Granted, Shevchenko has shown no signs of doing that. But that’s all we’ve got for you in terms of trying to create intrigue for this fight, so that’s what we’ll go with.
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