När Valentina Shevchenko under förra veckan avslöjade sina planer,att gå ner till flugvikt, så var det många som genast började önska en matchning mellan henne och UFC:s stråviktsdrottning Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Shevchenko har tidigare besegrat polskan tre gånger inom Muay Thai, men de har aldrig mötts inom MMA.
När Jedrzejczyk i en nylig medverkan i The MMA Hour tillfrågades om en potentiell fight mellan henne och Shevchenko vägrade polskan att svara på om huruvida hon skulle vilja gå en match mot ryskan eller inte. Detta pågrund av den stora respekt hon har för den tidigare titelutmanaren inom bantamvikt Shevchenko.
Dock berättade hon att hon funderade på att gå upp en viktklass, till flugvikt, efter sin kommande match mot Rose Namajunas vid UFC 217, samt efter ännu ett tilltänkt titelförsvar 2018.
En seger för Jedrzejczyk skulle innebära att polskan tangerar Ronda Rouseys kvinnliga UFC rekord på 6 titelförsvar. Polskan uttryckte sig med följande i The MMA Hour:
I have a very good relationship with Valentina Shevchenko.
I don’t want to say I want to fight her, but we will see. I was talking a lot about the 125 division, but it was before I was working with Perfecting Athletes.
Now I feel great. I feel healthy. I make my weight very easy, but who knows? This year I want to be focused on my strawweight belt, tie Ronda Rousey’s record of six title defenses and in March I want to fight one more time in the strawweight division and after that we will see.
I may go up to the 125 division. It’s all about the right time and the right decision, so we will see.
Jedrzejczyk hävdade att hennes mål är att bevisa sig som en historisk dominant inom stråviktsdivisionen och besegra alla återstående titelutmanare av rang.
There is a lot of pressure but I don’t take it this way. I see it like I don’t want to stop and this is what keeps me going
I want to keep proving to people that I’m simply the best and I’m the champion for a reason. This will be my sixth title defense. I want to clean out the strawweight division and that’s what I’m going to do.
Polskan avfärdade även de påståenden om att hon vill fightas i den kommande galan i New York endast pågrund av de finansiella intäkter UFC 217 kommer att ge henne.
After the fight with Jessica Andrade I felt I wanted to fight in New York and I said that at the press conference.
That’s the thing – I do my job. I do my job in the gym, I do my job outside of the gym and when I go tot the fight I always put on a show.
I met Dana (White) at International Fight Week and he said, ‘Kid, I love you, if you want to fight in New York, I’ll try to do my best and put you on this card’, but of course there are so many things going on. You know, like someone got injured, Jon Jonesgot cut and they wanted to put me on a different card. Like I said, I do my job and I want others to do their job.
It was my goal to fight on this card. At that time, six months ago, I didn’t know GSP was going to fight on this card. People are saying I only want to fight on big cards, but this isn’t true – at the time I didn’t know Georges St-Pierrewas going to fight at MSG.
The other thing, you get taxed an extra eight percent in New York, so this is not about the money. I set my dreams and I follow my plan everyday, that’s why I’m so successful.
Ni kan se hela Jedrzejczyks medverkan i The MMA Hour här nedan:
