“One analyst believes Natalia Silva will give Valentina Shevchenko headaches in a potential title clash,” BJPenn.com wrote on X on Monday night, about 48 hours after Silva won the women’s flyweight title at UFC 332. The outlet’s accompanying story carried the headline that Shevchenko was predicted to “have her hands full” against the new champion. Central Oregon Daily ran the same assessment, attributed to an unnamed UFC analyst. BJPenn.com followed with a second post asking fans whether they agreed.
The case for Silva starts with the scorecards. She beat Wang Cong by unanimous decision on October 3 (48-47 twice, 49-46) and became the fourth undisputed champion in UFC women’s flyweight history, according to the UFC. It was her ninth consecutive win, which ties Shevchenko for the longest streak the division has ever produced. That’s a record Shevchenko spent years building, and a 29-year-old Brazilian now shares it.
Shevchenko didn’t wait long to respond. MMA Junkie reported she sent a message to Silva right after UFC 332, so the interest clearly runs both ways. She sits No. 1 in Knockout Daily’s flyweight rankings at 26-4-1, with Silva at No. 2 and 21-5-1 (that ranking predates the title win). Shevchenko is a former two-time UFC champion and is widely considered one of the best women ever to compete in MMA. There’s a fun footnote in her history: one of her rare kickboxing losses came against Cong Wang back in 2015, so the woman Silva just dethroned owns a win over Shevchenko in another sport.
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Now the part that makes me squint. Shevchenko’s last fight was November 15, 2025, which means she’d be coming up on a year away from the cage by any realistic booking date, and she turned 38 in March. I’ve lost enough money on legends coming off long layoffs to know how that story sometimes ends. If the books open Shevchenko as a meaningful favorite on reputation alone, the champion with the active nine-fight streak is the side I’d be looking at.
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Nothing is signed. ESPN posed the obvious question in its post-fight rundown, whether Silva’s first defense will come against Shevchenko, and the UFC hasn’t answered it yet. Even Merab Dvalishvili weighed in during fight week, writing on X that he was cheering for Silva. If the promotion books the No. 1 contender, the first defense will settle which of them gets to keep the nine-fight record to herself.
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