{"id":882540,"date":"2026-09-06T21:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882540\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:58:16","slug":"stripped-shevchenkos-coach-explains-what-happened-to-flyweight-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882540\/","title":{"rendered":"Stripped? Shevchenko\u2019s coach explains what happened to flyweight title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">After weeks of delays and behind-the-scenes attempts to cobble something meaningful together, UFC 332 in Salt Lake City, Utah finally has a championship main event: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/upcoming-ufc-events\/469821\/natalia-silva-vs-wang-cong-title-fight-to-main-event-ufc-332-injured-valentina-shevchenko-stripped-of-flyweight-crown\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Natalia Silva vs. Wang Cong<\/a> for the vacant women\u2019s flyweight belt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Wait, what? The flyweight belt that Valentina Shevchenko has defended a whopping nine times since 2018 across two title runs? That\u2019s now vacant? When announcing Silva vs. Cong, they cited a \u201cBullet\u201d injury but didn\u2019t really get into details on how the belt was put back up for grabs. A statement from Shevchenko\u2019s coach Pavel Fedotov gave a bit more info.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cWe were supposed to fight on October 3 against Natalia Silva, but due to an injury to the ligaments in the shoulder and back, we decided not to push things and postpone the fight,\u201d Fedotov wrote (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ushatayka_tm\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ushatayka).<\/a> \u201cGiven that the recovery will take a long time, we\u2019ve made the decision to temporarily vacate the belt, and once she recovers, she will fight for it again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">According to Fedotov, they\u2019re expecting the injury to take eight months to recover from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">In the past, you might expect to see an interim title go up for grabs after similar injuries taking under a year to heal. But these days, the UFC has gotten into the habit of asking its injured champions to relinquish their belts. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2023\/9\/22\/23885302\/jamahal-hill-officially-vacates-light-heavyweight-title-shares-thoughts-on-prochazka-vs-pereira\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jamahal Hill did it<\/a> when he ruptured his Achilles tendon, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2022\/11\/23\/23475847\/injured-jiri-prochazka-vacates-205-pound-title-jan-blachowicz-vs-magomed-ankalaev-headlines-ufc-282\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">so did Jiri Prochazka<\/a> when he injured his shoulder. Now we\u2019ve got Valentina Shevchenko doing it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Hopefully these fighters are getting compensated well for giving up their hard earned championship gold so the UFC can patch holes in their matchmaking schedule with undisputed title fights. Hill and Prochazka never won back their belts after relinquishing. Will Shevchenko suffer the same fate?<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After weeks of delays and behind-the-scenes attempts to cobble something meaningful together, UFC 332 in Salt Lake City,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-882540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}