Women’s Flyweight Title Fight Set For MSG
The UFC has a main event for UFC 230, just not the one everyone would’ve expected for the bright lights of New York City.
The UFC announced on Monday that a UFC women’s flyweight title showdown between Valentina Shevchenko and Sijara Eubanks will headline UFC 230 next month.
Valentina Shevchenko (15-3, 4-2 UFC) was set for a matchup with then UFC women’s flyweight champion Nicco Montaño (4-2, 1-0 UFC) at UFC 228 last month. Montaño would pull out of the fight the day of the weigh-ins as she was rushed to the hospital for weight cutting issues.
Montaño would be stripped of the title by the UFC on the very same day and a fight between Valentina Shevchenko and former UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the vacated women’s flyweight title would be announced for the UFC 231 PPV event in December.
Desperate for a main event, the UFC has scraped those plans and with Jedrzejczyk not ready, went with the former ‘Ultimate Fighter’ contestant Sijara Eubanks.
Eubanks defeated Maia Kahaunaele-Stevenson, DeAnna Bennett and Roxanne Modaferi to advance to the finals of the show last year but would have to withdraw due to missing weight before the ‘TUF 26’ finale.
Eubanks (3-2, 1-0 UFC) defeated UFC veteran Lauren Murphy in a dominant unanimous decision victory back in June of this year.
Valentina Shevchenko, meanwhile, last fought back in February where she dominated Priscila Cachoeira in a lopsided 2nd-Round submission win.
She holds notable wins over former UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm, Julianna Peña, and Sarah Kaufman.
The process of finding an actual main event of a loaded card has been stagnated by a number injuries and fighters not being ready to compete physically.
Last month it was rumored that UFC welterweight king Tyron Woodley could’ve been ready for a fifth consecutive title defense vs top welterweight contender and now rival Colby Covington.
The fight would fall apart as Woodley opted to have hand surgery that could sideline him for the rest of 2018.
There were rumblings about co-main eventers Dustin Poirer and Nate Diaz fighting for a uncreated 165-pound title. UFC President Dana White quickly buried those ideas pitched by both fighters.
With the UFC 230 card featuring a number of barnburners such as Poirer-Diaz, Weidman-Rockhold II and Brunson-Adesanya, it’s not a huge blow to the UFC to book a main event absolutely no one cares about.
What are your thoughts on UFC 230’s main event? Leave your comments below!