Valentina Shevchenko believes she’s residing in the absolute best time to be a martial artist.
When the UFC first got here on the scene in 1993, athletes had been typically characterised by their particular abilities. For some, it was Sumo. For others, it was boxing, fight sambo, or jiu-jitsu. Hell, even legendary brawler David ‘Tank’ Abbott described his fashion as pitfighting whereas competing contained in the Octagon.
However immediately, MMA encompasses all of these types, to some extent, and Shevchenko thinks that’s fairly rattling cool.
“You recognize, we’re now residing a dream of some nice individuals, nice athletes, who had been dreaming a few common martial artist—that will be, like, comprise all strategies, and the fighter can be so common and wouldn’t have any drawback to make use of any approach they need,” Shevchenko stated throughout Wednesday’s UFC 322 media day in New York.
“Now, each fighter who fights in MMA is a common fighter, and we will select what tactic or approach to make use of. We don’t have an issue to combat with kicks, we don’t have an issue to combat with palms. MMA fighter needs to be the right fighter: kicking, hanging, grapple, wrestling, every little thing. That is the most effective dream of anybody…
“Fashionable fighters, they don’t have to start out with some martial arts after which be a part of one other; they already began to coach MMA. It’s a brief, brief technique to change into a celebrity in precisely MMA as a mode, and I’m very completely satisfied that I’m residing on the proper time, in the fitting place, and I can present my abilities that I developed throughout all 32 years of training martial arts. That is what I name the artwork and the fantastic thing about preventing.”
With regards to girls in combined martial arts, it’s exhausting to think about anybody else being on the high of the all-time checklist aside from Shevchenko.
Now a two-time flyweight world champion, ‘Bullet’ will put her gold up for grabs towards one other former two-time titleholder, Zhang Weili, at UFC 322 — a contest Daniel Cormier is already touting because the “best feminine combat of all time.”
Zhang vacated her strawweight strap earlier this 12 months, particularly to maneuver up from 115 and problem Shevchenko for her 125-pound crown.
General, ‘Magnum’ is 10-2 beneath the UFC banner, her solely losses coming towards ‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas. Since then, she’s gained fights in a row, together with back-to-back second-round finishes towards Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Carla Esparza.
