Chael Sonnen has broken down how to defeat Valentina Shevchenko.
Since joining the UFC in 2015, Shevchenko’s only loss came against Amanda Nunes, who got the job done twice. Other than ‘The Lioness,’ the reigning UFC women’s flyweight championship has been nearly unbeatable. During a recent video on his YouTube channel, Sonnen had this to say about how to beat ‘Bullet’:
“I believe you’ve gotta nullify that striking. That striking is a problem, those leg kicks are a problem… When she’s on her feet, her endurance for striking is second to none, she doesn’t wear down. She’s gonna throw that jab, she’s gonna throw that cross, she’s gonna throw that kick, she’s gonna throw that teep to the body, she’s gonna come back to the thigh, she’s gonna come back to the hook, she’s gonna come back to the body. It’s not gonna stop, you have to disrupt her.”
Sonnen continued by detailing how to throw off Shevchenko’s striking:
“If you wanna disrupt somebody, you do one of three things. You back away, so you’re too far away for her to throw the shots, you step in and grab her, you clinch her, so now there’s no power on the shots, or you throw at her. A fight is a dance and only one person can lead at a time.”
Chael Sonnen believes Valentina Shevchenko’s opponents need to out-work her to win
Valentina Shevchenko has won nine consecutive fights dating back to February 2018. Although physical skills greatly contribute to her success, Chael Sonnen believes ‘Bullet’ has been unstoppable because of intangibles factors. He had this to say during the same YouTube video:
“She has the conditioning and she’s got the willingness, it doesn’t intimidate her, being tired doesn’t intimidate her, running out of energy doesn’t intimidate her… When you go to the ground [with Shevchenko] and you’re intimidated to do a scramble, and you know that she’s not, you have to out-scramble her, you’ve got to out-hustle her, you gotta want it more than she wants it, you’ve got to out-work her… The bullet is willing to go further, and she’s willing to work harder.”
Shevchenko became the UFC women’s flyweight champion against Joanna Jedrzejczyk in December 2018. Since then, ‘Bullet’ has defended her throne seven times. The next title challenger will be Alexa Grasso, who looks to pull off a massive upset after winning four consecutive fights.
