As Valentina Shevchenko and Amanda Nunes continue to dominate their divisions, the call for the trilogy has only increased, yet for Shevchenko, she says the Brazilian doesn’t want it.
Shevchenko and Nunes first fought back at UFC 196 where the Brazilian won a decision. They then had their rematch at UFC 215 as Nunes was defending her bantamweight title and once again the Brazilian got her hand raised, yet this time was by a controversial split decision. Since then, Shevchenko went down to flyweight and has gone 8-0 including defending her belt six times. With that, many are calling for the trilogy to happen, however, Shevchenko claims Nunes isn’t interested in it.
“I kind of feel that she’s doesn’t want too much this fight to happen,” Shevchenko said on The MMA Hour. “Because inside of herself, she feels that she was gifted the victory from our second fight. Gifted by the judges. She feels that she was beaten by the smaller girl from the smaller weight class and she is a bigger girl. It’s kind of like pressure on her from the inside.
“That’s why she kind of like says ‘I [beat] her twice,’ whatever she’s saying,” Shevchenko continued. “But it’s kind of like this camouflages what she’s feeling for real and definitely, if you was beaten by someone smaller than you by two [weight classes], it would affect you. That’s why I feel she’s kind of like ‘I don’t want that fight happening.’”
Although Nunes has never fully said she doesn’t want the fight, Valentina Shevchenko has noticed the Brazilian isn’t as open to it as she and the UFC are.
“It kind of makes sense exactly this way because if you listen to her interviews all the time, she’s kind of like ‘why do I have to fight her? I beat her twice, I don’t have nothing to do with that’ and it’s kind of like when you start to defend yourself in this aggressive style,” Shevchenko said. “It means that inside of you, you have something saying oh no, you’re guilty. Inside of her, it’s saying that ‘no, you lost that fight.’”
If Nunes does decided to budge on the trilogy and make the third fight happen, Shevchenko is confident she would get her hand raised even though she is a lot smaller than Nunes.
“This is my goal. I know that when we will have fight next time, it’s going to be I will be ready to do anything,” Shevchenko said. “Time passed, I’m a different fighter, she is a different fighter than the last time that we fought. In my mind, in my mindset, I don’t have any ‘maybe if …. I will try’ — no, my mind is like only there. Only forward. No matter. I have to die [in] there but I have to be in there.”
