Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko Reportedly Rebooked For UFC 215
The anticipated UFC women’s bantamweight title bout that fans were cheated out of at this month’s UFC 213 has reportedly been rescheduled for the previously speculated-upon date.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will reportedly take on top contender Valentina Shevchenko at September 9’s UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada according to a report from Brazilian outlet Globo.
The two longtime competitors were set to headline July 8’s UFC 213, the pay-per-view (PPV) which capped off the UFC’s traditional International Fight Week, but a now-infamous last-minute withdrawal from Nunes due to illness meant the interim middleweight championship bout between Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero became the destroyed card’s new feature bout.
Nunes and Shevchenko met once before, with “The Lioness” outlasting “Bullet” two rounds to one at March 2016’s UFC 196, a fight which many believe the Russian-born kickboxing specialist would have won were it scheduled for five championship rounds.
Shevchenko will get her chance at making that discussion a reality when she meets Nunes for five rounds on September 9 from Edmonton, but if these two elite fighters’ recent results are any indication, it may not last that long. Nunes recently finished all-time great former UFC champion Ronda Rousey in 48 seconds at last December’s UFC 207, while Shevchenko submitted top-ranked contender Julianna Pena with a picturesque armbar in the main event of UFC on FOX 22 in late January, taking on the touted wrestler in her area of expertise.
If and when the bout is confirmed by the UFC as expected, Nunes vs. Shevchenko II will join the previously announced Junior dos Santos vs. Francis Ngannou heavyweight bout and a featherweight affair between Gilbert Melendez and Jeremy Stephens.
