- Valentina Shevchenko shared her thoughts on Irene Aldana’s horrible face cut at UFC 306
- “Bullet” heaped praise on Aldana for showing toughness
Valentina Shevchenko commended Irene Aldana for not letting her gruesome cut stop her from finishing the fight at UFC 306.
Irene’s heart is bigger than her cut
Speaking to MMA Today, “Bullet” admitted that she only had a closer look at Aldana’s face cut after her fight and was shocked by how serious it was. That’s when Shevchenko realized how big Aldana’s heart was to be able to continue to fight.
“Oh my god! During my warmup, I saw there was a cut but I tried not to be so much into what happens before my fight. After, I saw on the internet an update how it was during the fight, after the fight, how many stitches they put on her face… It’s something that’s definitely very, very scary,” Shevchenko said of Aldana.
“The only thing that I want to say about Irene is that she has some big heart. She has so much like desire and she never stopped. She was going there forward. She understood that it’s affecting the opinion of judges and everything, but she keep moving forward. She was like, ‘No, I want it. It’s mine.’ She was fighting until the end. I win or I die,” she added.
Irene Aldana provided an update on her cuts from #NocheUFC 😳
What a warrior 😤 #UFC306
(via @IreneAldana_) pic.twitter.com/GdlqmTOhbB
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 16, 2024
Valentina opened up about the dangers of MMA
In light with Aldana’s face injury, Shevchenko opened up about how as MMA fighters, they take a huge risk everytime they step inside the Octagon.
“It’s MMA, we are fighters, we know that it can happen,” Shevchenko reflected. “We go inside the Octagon with it might being the outcome and we take this risk because this is our life. Definitely, it’s something you don’t want to happen, but sometimes it happen. It happen with Irene this time but she has so much heart. She’s one of the strongest fighters ever to continue to do that. So, I just wish her the speedy recover[y] and to go back and do what she loves to do.”
"She's just one of the strongest fighters ever for continuing to do that. I just wish her a speedy recovery."@BulletValentina shows her respect to @IreneAldana_ for battling through a gruesome cut at #UFC306 | #UFCNoche
Source: MMA Today w/@DinThomas & @AlanJouban pic.twitter.com/6bbztpyRBn
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) September 17, 2024
Shevchenko was able to reclaim her flyweight title after dominating Alexa Grasso. On the other hand, Aldana suffered a decision loss to Norma Dumont which saw her dropping down to No. 6 in the bantamweight rankings and out of the Top 5.
