Women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko defeated Katlyn Chookagian by second-round stoppage in the co-main event of the UFC 247 pay-per-view event in Houston featuring Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes on Saturday night. The action was halted at 1:03 of round two. The victory netted Shevchenko her fifth straight win since moving down to the flyweight division in 2018 and marked her third successful defense of the UFC women’s flyweight title.
Shevchenko, 31, from Kyrgyzstan, controlled the pace of the first round with clever kickboxing. The former Muay Thai champion was well-balanced on her feet and used her pristine technique to counter the lanky American challenger.
Chookagian, 31, fighting out of Jersey City, New Jersey, kept the pressure on the champion from a distance. She threw hard kicks to Shevchenko’s legs and body, but the No. 2-ranked pound-for-pound woman in the UFC saw most of what Chookagian had coming and dodged or parried it.
Shevchenko was notably faster and more explosive than Chookagian. That proved true when the two locked in the clinch for the first time in the middle of the first round. She took Chookagian down hard to the mat and finished the five minutes working on top of her, bloodying her opponent with a devastating elbow strike to put her stamp on the matter.
The second round saw a patient champion using her faster reflexes and better balance to land strikes while avoiding returns. Shevchenko’s counters were fast, accurate and meaningful. She didn’t press the action but was content to land as hard as she pleased whenever she deemed necessary.
Again Shevchenko took Chookagain down hard to the mat when the two locked in the clinch with about two minutes left in the round. The two stayed there with Shevchenko doing most of the damage as Chookagian tried to survive.
But the end was near.
Shevchenko took her opponent down to the ground quickly in the third. Once there, she threw heavy punches to her opponent’s face until the action was finally stopped at 1:03. She’s become one of the most dominant champions in the UFC and huge fights still lay ahead of her.
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Valentina Shevchenko Scored Dominant Win at UFC 247