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Valentina Shevchenko Reveals Why She Doesn’t Call Herself Best Female Fighter In the World

Originally posted on EssentiallySports
By Proma Chatterjee | Last updated Nov 19, 2025 4:13 AM ET

“I’m very happy that I surrounded myself with people who don’t let me be lazy and start to think that I’m the best.” Valentina Shevchenko said this in a UFC interview back in 2020, and her mindset hasn’t shifted an inch since. The discussion about the “best female fighter alive” ignites every time she enters the cage, but Shevchenko keeps avoiding the title as if it were just a bad punch. She is naturally disciplined, rather than declaring in a sport where the talk about GOAT is so prevalent. But Shevchenko could not care less.

‘Bullet’ went all out at UFC 322 on Saturday, where she established her superiority in the co-main event against Zhang Weili. This fight is already being referred to by many fans as the skill-for-skill most important women’s fight ever. This was an inevitable clash between the two best pound-for-pound female fighters in the promotion, and Shevchenko proved why she is the top dog. So, by the definition of the term P4P #1, she is the best female fighter on the roster right now.

The humility behind Valentina Shevchenko’s longevity

Valentina Shevchenko pulled up on Ariel Helwani’s show and broke down exactly why she stays humble and never lets the ‘I’m the best’ mindset creep into her head. She shut down Helwani’s true-or-false question instantly, saying, “Don’t ask me that… It’s not for me, the question. It’s in your heart. What do you think? It’s for my fans… I will never say things like ‘I’m the best, I’m the best in the world.’ I’m not the person like that.” She explained how letting those thoughts in destroys longevity, adding, “If you want to stay at this level for a long time… you have to have this mentality where you are not allowing these thoughts to come into your head… It’s going to affect your performance. It is going to affect your training. It’s going to affect everything you’re approaching in your life.” For her, staying a true martial artist means cutting ego out at the root. This mindset becomes all the more impressive when you take into account the list of her achievements. The most title wins in UFC women’s flyweight history, nine defenses in two reigns, and the most knockouts in the division – and that’s just in the UFC. She’s a seventeen-time Muay Thai world champion, and has won kickboxing titles to go along with it. In the UFC, she’s almost cleared out the division, was the first champion to collect all eight rubies for her belt, and definitively finished her trilogy with Alexa Grasso. Yet, even after her dominant UFC 322 win, she stayed sharp and open-minded. In the post-fight presser, she name-dropped future opponents like Natalia Silva, Erin Blanchfield, and even Kayla Harrison as possible challengers.

Off the mat, she’s equally formidable. Joe Rogan once praised her on his podcast, calling her a “straight-up killer” with gun skills “like a Special Ops soldier.” He even joked half-seriously that she could be a Russian spy, given her precision, calm, and deadly efficiency. And this reputation is why a bout between her and Kayla Harrison is a tremendous idea for next year’s White House card.

Valentina Shevchenko vs. Kayla Harrison at the White House?

According to Kayla Harrison’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, Amanda Nunes could return in January and then face Valentina Shevchenko on the June White House card. Abdelaziz tweeted, “@KaylaH beats Amanda Nunes in January & she’ll fight Valentina in the White House.”

Shevchenko, fresh off her dominant win over Zhang Weili, has already said she’s open to the fight. Abdelaziz’s timeline adds fuel to the hype. Nunes’ return, Harrison’s rise, and a fight with Shevchenko could all converge this summer at a historic venue. And Abdelaziz didn’t just hype the match; he declared that after both wins, Harrison would become the greatest female fighter of all time.

Nunes didn’t hold back either. After Shevchenko’s UFC 322 win, she wrote, “After I beat KH [Kayla Harrison] I’m going to go down to 125 and take this belt for [the] collection too.” It wasn’t the first time she called out “Bullet.” In a past media call, she said, “Valentina is the No. 1 contender … this is the fight that I want … I never was going to run away.”

Harrison still competes at bantamweight, and the cut already pushes her to the edge. Fans have watched her struggle to squeeze down, so imagining her jumping straight into a showdown with Shevchenko at 125 feels like science-fiction weight-cutting. Nunes, meanwhile, beat Shevchenko twice, but both fights were razor-thin. A third meeting now carries a different energy. Shevchenko has evolved, sharpened her striking, and rebuilt her momentum.

A trilogy with Nunes might finally flip the script, while a Harrison matchup would test how far raw power can travel when dragged down the scale. Either way, Shevchenko stands tall in the center of it all — options on every side, legacy expanding, and another massive moment loading in the chamber.

This article first appeared on EssentiallySports and was syndicated with permission.

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