Valentina Shevchenko Meets Joanne Calderwood At UFC 251

Just like that, Valentina Shevchenko has another title defense lined up.

ESPN reports that Shevchenko will put her UFC women’s flyweight crown up for grabs yet again, this time, against Joanne Calderwood. The fight takes place at the UFC 251 pay-per-view (PPV) event on June 6. Both sides have agreed to the matchup. Shevchenko is currently on a five-fight win streak inside the Octagon. Her last loss, and the only two losses of her UFC career, come to current UFC women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes.

Both coming by way of decision, the latter of which was a controversial one. Shevchenko’s last outing resulted in a third-round TKO win over Katlyn Chookagian in the UFC 247 co-main event. It marked the third-consecutive title defense of Shevchenko’s championship career with the UFC. Now, she’ll take on the No. 3-ranked Calderwood. “Jojo” bounced back from a loss to Chookagian last June by taking a split decision win over Andrea Lee in September.

Now, Calderwood, who won the first-ever UFC women’s flyweight fight in promotion history back in 2016 by stopping Valérie Létourneau, gets her first crack at UFC gold. Both women are great strikers and should put on quite the show come June.

What do you think about the matchup between Shevchenko and Calderwood?