Valentina Shevchenko Dropped From UFC Pound-For-Pound Perch, Replaced By Amanda Nunes

Despite her continued dominant reign atop the flyweight division, undisputed champion, Valentina Shevchenko has been knocked from her number one rank in the official UFC pound-for-pound rankings – with former opponent and newly minted, duel-weight champion, Amanda Nunes returning to the summit.

Valentina Shevchenko lodged her seventh straight title defense back in June

Valentina Shevchenko, who co-headlined UFC 275 back in June, managed to successful rack up her seventh successful defense of the flyweight throne, defeated Brazilian challenger, Taila Santos in a hard-fought, split decision earning effort in Singapore.

The Kyrgyzstan technician had managed to leap to the number one rank in the official pound-for-pound rankings off the back of the aforenoted, Nunes’ bantamweight title loss to Julianna Peña back in December of last year.

However, post-UFC 277 over the course of the weekend, and with the release of the updated rankings, Bahia standout, Nunes has managed to reclaim the number one rank in the official list – after she turned in a hugely one-sided win over bantamweight champion, Peña in the pair’s rematch, reclaiming her spot as the bantamweight pacesetter in the pair’s rematch.

Recovering from December submission loss woes to the Washington native, Nunes, who was credited with three separate knockdowns and a further six separate takedowns against Peña in their American Airlines Center headliner, scored a unanimous decision (50-45, 50-44, 50-43) re-run win.

Off the back of her title win as Nunes added the bantamweight crown back to a cabinet which already contains the undisputed featherweight strap, the Brazilian was almost immediately linked with a trilogy bout with her flyweight champion counterpart, Shevchenko.

Twice defeating Shevchenko during their Octagon tenures, Nunes managed to first land a unanimous decision win over the flyweight queen back in March 2016, however, narrowly retained her title at UFC 215 courtesy of a highly-contested split decision win in Alberta, Canada. 

Valentina Shevchenko moved to the flyweight ranks following her second defeat to Nunes. And has since embarked on a perfect run of nine consecutive wins.