“It is definitely going to happen sometime”. That is what Valentina Shevchenko said when asked about a possible trilogy fight with Amanda Nunes after her win at UFC 261 over Jessica Andrade. However, Dana White has gone on record saying that is not the right fight for Valentina and that it “won’t happen anytime soon”.
While this conversation seems to arise whenever either of these women dominate some under matched soul, everything may line up for a trilogy bout early in 2022.
The current flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko today expressed interest in defending her belt against Lauren Murphy at UFC 266 this September. That would be just a month after Amanda Nunes’ scheduled bantamweight fight with Juliana Pena. While The Lioness is training down weight for a 135 pound fight, it makes sense to look at a trilogy despite White’s opinion.
The first match between these two was won unanimously by Nunes over the course of just three rounds. When they ran it back a year later, Shevchenko proved to be a much more game opponent. It was once again Nunes getting her hand raised, but by a very small margin. The split decision win was really the only scare during Nunes’ current twelve-fight winning streak.
Rarely do we need to see a matchup three times, but there are exceptions to be made. Fans have been begging Alexander Volkanovski to run it back with Max Holloway after winning twice, but this is a trilogy fight I would much rather see. If both make successful title defenses this fall, I believe they lock horns for one final time next year.
With a combined fifteen straight title wins already between them, there is no argument that this fight needs to happen ‘sometime’ as Shevchenko suggests.
Ringworm 