Valentina Shevchenko will face arguably her toughest task yet in the women’s flyweight division.
As per UFC president Dana White (via ESPN), Shevchenko will defend her women’s flyweight title against Jessica Andrade at the UFC 261 pay-per-view event which takes place April 24.
There is no location for the event as of yet, but as has been the case for nearly a year, it will either take place in Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi.
Will Shevchenko Finally Be Tested?
Shevchenko will be looking for her fifth title defense when she faces Andrade.
“Bullet” has more or less dominated the competition at 125 pounds with her last defense coming in November when she outpointed Jennifer Maia at UFC 255.
It led many to wonder if there was anyone in the division capable of challenging her.
In steps former women’s strawweight champion in Andrade who is coming an impressive first-round TKO win over Katlyn Chookagian in her flyweight debut.
Undoubtedly one of the hardest hitting women in the sport today, the Brazilian is perceived by many to provide a much tougher test for Shevchenko than in recent times.
White is certainly in agreement on that.
“Shevchenko is in a place in her career now where she needs an opponent that people think actually has a chance of beating her,” White said in November. “And I think we all know that Andrade does.
“Andrade is a very very good fight for her. That’s a tough fight. If you’re going to go out and be safe the first couple of rounds against somebody like Jennifer, what are you going to do against Andrade? Andrade is going to bring her a lot of things she’s never seen before. Not to mention the power that Andrade has. She just knocked a girl out, a really good girl, like the number two girl in the world, with a body shot. She’s a real problem for Shevchenko that she’ll have to figure out.”
It will definitely be the most eagerly-anticipated Shevchenko fight in quite some time.
