Valentina Shevchenko has once again set herself apart from the pack, delivering a pristine performance against Weili Zhang at UFC 322 to achieve her second consecutive title defense at 125-pounds.
The flyweight champion’s strategy tonight was executed perfectly, delivering strong strikes to the body of Zhang, before taking things to the ground. Once on the ground, which is where the majority of the fight was spent, Shevchenko delivered strong ground and pound strikes from dominant positions, all while not allowing Zhang to advance her position whatsoever.
With that takedown @BulletValentina becomes the 1st woman in UFC history to land 60 career takedowns 👏 #VeChain #UFC322 pic.twitter.com/N7VnTqrew4
— UFC (@ufc) November 16, 2025
Zhang moved up in weight from 115-pounds to challenge Shevchenko, now that we know the result of the fight, there is not exactly a clear path to whom the storied champion should face next. This subject was broached during her post fight interview with Joe Rogan, to which she responded with list of options.
Shevchenko feels that there are still options for her at flyweight, mentioning Natalia Silva and Erin Blanchfield. Additionally, she even mentioned bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison as a potential bout, which would certainly at this point be a fight to determine one of the greatest women’s MMA competitors of all time.