Valentina Shevchenko will be looking to win her 18th title next week when she takes on Amanda Nunes for the UFC women's bantamweight title at UFC 213. Nunes and Shevchenko already fought once before at UFC 196 and the Brazilian ended up winning that match via a unanimous decision.
Since her loss at UFC 196, Shevchenko has fought twice, first against Holly Holm and then Julianna Pena and she won both of them. Now she will be looking to extend her winning streak and according to the Kyrgyzstan fighter, nothing can stop her from becoming the new UFC women's bantamweight champion.
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"Winning the title would be very meaningful for me because I have been training all my life and this is the right moment. Here I am and I never stopped going to where I am because my goal is to win the belt and nothing can stop me," UFC official website quoted Shevchenko as saying.
This fight will be Shevchenko's fourth fight in the UFC and even though she has not been here for long she is still one of the most experienced fighters on the roster having been a professional boxer and kickboxer before making the switch to MMA.
Her only loss in the UFC came at the hands of Nunes and now she believes she can avenge that loss because of all the experience she has gained after being in the fighting business for over 20 years.
"Maybe I can say it's because I've been in martial arts more than 20 years already. I had a lot of competitions and sometimes there was a lot of pressure. I have 17 world championships and I think everything helped me survive under this kind of pressure and attention," Shevchenko said.
The last time the two of them fought it was a three round bout and even though Shevchenko lost it she did scare Nunes in the final five minutes and had the fight been scheduled for five rounds, she could have got the win.
The two are set to compete in a five-round fight this time and the Kyrgyzstan fighter believes this fight will be completely different and is confident she will finish the Brazilian.
"If I look back to that fight, I would do many things different. And it's not only because of the third round. If I had a little bit more time, it would be different, but this time it will be a totally different fight," Shevchenko said.
