Kyrgyzstani fighter Valentina Shevchenko has temporarily vacated the UFC flyweight title due to a serious injury. Details are reported by infohub.kz.
The fighter's coach, Pavel Fedotov, spoke about the athlete's health in an interview with the Telegram channel "Ushataika". It was previously announced that the 38-year-old Shevchenko had withdrawn from a bout against Brazilian Natalia Silva, scheduled for October 3, due to a shoulder and back ligament injury. Silva will instead face Chinese fighter Wang Cong for the vacant title at the same event.
"We were supposed to fight Silva. But due to the ligament injury in the shoulder and back, we decided not to rush and postponed the fight. It is said that it may take up to eight months for the ligaments to fully heal. Since the recovery will take a long time, we decided to temporarily vacate the belt and come back for it after recovery," Fedotov stated.
Shevchenko is the top-ranked female fighter in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings. In professional mixed martial arts, the Kyrgyzstani has 26 wins, four losses, and one draw.