{"id":392836,"date":"2026-01-07T00:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/392836\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T00:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:57:07","slug":"valentina-shevchenko-calls-out-ufc-fans-skipping-wmma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/392836\/","title":{"rendered":"Valentina Shevchenko calls out UFC fans skipping WMMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women\u2019s mixed martial arts (MMA) remains a hot-button topic<\/a> in 2026 \u2014 not because anyone is debating whether it belongs, but because a loud portion of the fan base still openly admits they don\u2019t enjoy watching it. The familiar refrain is everywhere: \u201cOh, women are fighting next? Time for a beer run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko isn\u2019t buying the excuse \u2014 and she thinks the mindset is nonsense.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Russian YouTube channel Ushatayka, Shevchenko was asked about fans who use women\u2019s MMA as an opportunity to use the restroom \u2014 or, as the joke goes in Russia, \u201cgo make some tea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Russian-language MMA, there\u2019s a very popular joke about women\u2019s fights \u2014 that their main benefit is you can go make some tea while they\u2019re on,\u201d the interviewer explained to Shevchenko, to which she asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s your opinion?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy opinion is that there are excellent, highly technical women\u2019s fights. They\u2019re very interesting,\u201d the reporter added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exactly the opinion that needs to be promoted,\u201d Shevchenko replied. \u201cMost people don\u2019t ask themselves what, how, or why. They simply repeat what they\u2019re told. Journalists say things from their platforms, and many people just repeat it without thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, they don\u2019t truly feel that way. The phrase lives on only because it\u2019s repeated without engaging the mind,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Shevchenko then outlined why she believes women\u2019s MMA deserves more respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, the beautiful form that highlights physique and athleticism. A woman shows not only strength, but also grace. She controls her body and demonstrates complex, varied techniques. For example, spinning strikes \u2014 that\u2019s very beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need to pretend all women\u2019s MMA is must-watch television. Low-level WMMA can be brutal to watch\u2014 but so can men\u2019s fights. Just ask anyone who sat through Denzel Freeman vs. Marek Bujlo or Billy Elekana vs. Ibo Aslan last year. Awful.<\/p>\n

Whether you appreciate women\u2019s MMA or prefer timing your beer runs accordingly, one thing is certain: it\u2019s not going anywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s mixed martial arts (MMA) remains a hot-button topic in 2026 \u2014 not because anyone is debating whether…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,702,3194],"class_list":{"0":"post-392836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news","15":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}