Valentina Shevchenko believes she resides in her greatest years as a fighter.
When the UFC first appeared in 1993, athletes have been typically characterised by particular abilities. For some, it was sumo. For others, it was boxing, fight sambo, or jiu-jitsu. Heck, even legendary brawler David ‘Tank’ Abbott described his type as a pit struggle contained in the Octagon.
However right this moment, blended martial arts encompasses all of these kinds to some extent, and Shevchenko thinks that is fairly cool.
“You already know, we at the moment are residing the dream of nice males and nice athletes who dreamed of a common fighter. It is a fighter with all of the strategies, and fighters are so common that they’re going to haven’t any drawback utilizing any approach they need,” Shevchenko stated at UFC 322 media day in New York on Wednesday.
“Now each fighter who fights in MMA is a common fighter and we are able to select which ways and strategies to make use of. There may be nothing incorrect with combating with kicks, there may be nothing incorrect with combating with arms. An MMA fighter needs to be an ideal fighter: kicking, hanging, grappling, wrestling, all the pieces. That is everybody’s highest dream…
“Trendy martial artists haven’t got to start out in a single martial artwork earlier than becoming a member of one other. They’ve already began coaching in MMA. It is a very brief journey to changing into a celebrity in MMA as a mode itself. I am in the correct place on the proper time, and I am very glad to have the ability to showcase the talents I’ve developed over 32 years of martial arts apply. That is what I name the artwork and great thing about martial arts.”
In the case of feminine blended martial arts fighters, it is arduous to think about anybody aside from Shevchenko on the prime of the all-time checklist.
‘Barrett’, a two-time flyweight world champion, will put gold on the road towards fellow former two-time titleholder Zhang Weili at UFC 322. This struggle has already been touted by Daniel Cormier as “the very best ladies’s struggle of all time.”
Chan relinquished the strawweight strap earlier this 12 months, particularly transferring up from 115 kilos to problem Shevchenko for the 125-pound title.
Total, “Magnum” is 10-2 below the UFC banner, together with her solely loss coming towards “Thug” Rose Namajunas. Since then, she has gained back-to-back matches, together with back-to-back two-round finishes over Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Carla Esparza.
