After a tight back-and-forth brawl against current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes at last night’s (Sat., Sept. 9, 2017) UFC 215 event in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Valentina Shevchenko came up on the wrong end of a split-decision loss.
She was obviously not happy.
As a result, “Bullet” took to the post-fight presser (full video replay here) to declare that she’d ask the promotion for a trilogy fight against “Lioness.”
“I want my title, and I’m ready to take one more fight against Amanda because I don’t agree, and I know it was my fight,” Shevchenko said via MMA Junkie. “If I have to fight her next, it will for sure be my victory. It’s difficult to say, because the UFC has to make the decision. But I will ask for the rematch.”
For Valentina, accepting a defeat when it is clear-cut is no issue, but when you feel you’ve won and you were wronged by judges, it’s not so easy to let go.
“I agree when it’s totally right,” Shevchenko said. “If you lost, you lost. But if you didn’t lose, but the decision goes to the other side, you feel it’s totally not right.” As for the possibility of appealing the loss, Shevchenko says it’s tempting, but history has shown athletic commissions aren’t too fond of overturning decisions.
“If I can, I will, because I totally don’t agree,” she said. “But I know from my experience, if judges make a decision once, it’s very difficult to change their mind.”
And if judges’ didn’t see the fight clear enough to get the decision correct, Valentina says all you have to do is look at her and Amanda’s facial damage.
“It should be a clear victory,” Shevchenko said. “But from this fight, you can see on her face and my face who landed more punches. I had stitches on my skin because I hit her teeth. I totally disagree,” she concluded.
Landing a trilogy fight after coming up short in the first two bouts is usually tough, but given the fact that this title fight was razor close, don’t be too surprised if the promotion gives “Bullet” what she wants.
Question is, are you interested?
For complete results from UFC 215: “Nunes vs Shevchenko 2,” including play-by-play updates, click here.