Valentina Shevchenko won’t fight again until 2027. The former UFC women’s flyweight champion told Ariel Helwani she couldn’t get fully healthy in time for an October title defense and needs a longer recovery, which is why the belt she carried for so long now belongs to someone else.
“It was not an easy decision to make. I care a lot about my division. I want it to be active and the belt to be in the game. I couldn’t be 100% for October, needing more time for proper recovery. I plan to come back in 2027,” Shevchenko told Helwani, who shared her statement on X on Monday.
Helwani was blunter than she was. In his telling, Shevchenko wasn’t available on the date the UFC needed her, so the promotion took her belt. MMA Mania has also cited reports that UFC officials pushed her to vacate because they wanted a championship fight to headline UFC 332. Shevchenko’s own words are softer. They read like a fighter choosing her body over a calendar, and she says plainly that she didn’t want the division stalled while she healed.
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Helwani called her the most decorated women’s flyweight champion of all time and one of the most decorated champions in UFC history. He used her situation to make a point about Sean Strickland, too. At some point, he wrote, the UFC will tell Strickland to pick a date, and if Strickland says no, Helwani doesn’t think the company will bat an eye before booking something else.
Silva’s belt, and the empty street
The title went to Natalia Silva, who beat Wang Cong by unanimous decision in the UFC 332 main event on October 3 in Salt Lake City. It was a five-round grind on a night when the rest of the card set an all-time UFC record with 11 knockouts. The win pushed the 29-year-old’s streak to nine, she’s still unbeaten in the UFC, and her run includes a win over Alexa Grasso at UFC 315 in Montreal in May 2025.
Then she went home. A video posted by Spinnin Backfist on October 9 showed Silva riding through her hometown in Minas Gerais in the back of a red pickup truck, a Brazilian flag around her and the belt in her hands, while her coach set off fireworks to announce her. The streets were mostly empty. Some fans online blamed her management for not lining up local media. Others used the footage to argue she’s a lesser champion because she never beat Shevchenko.
Quick take
That second argument is unfair to Silva. She didn’t pick her opponent, she didn’t vacate anyone’s belt, and nine straight wins with Grasso among them is real work. Still, Shevchenko’s statement hands the division the fight that ends the debate, and Silva now has a year or so to defend the belt and build her own case before “Bullet” comes back. If she’s still holding it when Shevchenko returns, somebody in Minas Gerais should start planning the parade route now.
