When it comes to the female UFC fighters, names like Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes dominate everyone else. For starters, Rousey was a WWE champion who dominated the Octagon in her prime and became an undisputed champion of the UFC women’s bantamweight division after she came over as the last reigning Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion. She remained the champion and defended her belt 5 times before losing it to Holly Holm in 2015. Later on, it was Nunes who showed ‘Rowdy’ the way out of the fighting realm and pushed her towards retirement. However, Conor McGregor had a different name in mind when he thought about the best female fighter in the UFC.
And congratulations if you’ve guessed it already. McGregor indeed believes that Valentina Shevchenko is the best female fighter ever. He even snubbed the former men’s flyweight and bantamweight champion, Henry Cejudo, and chose ‘Bullet’ to claim a win over ‘Triple C’ in a hypothetical intergender fight. During a conversation with LowKickMMA in 2019, he said, “So I would say Valentina, with the length and the range and the dangerous strikes, would probably spark Henry.” Needless to say, Shevchenko has been proving McGregor right with her recent performances.
Following her win over Manon Fiorot at UFC 315, the #1 pound-for-pound fighter received quite some praise from the Irishman. The former UFC double champion shared a few of Shevchenko’s Instagram reels on his IG Story and hailed the current flyweight champion. He captioned, “Valentina “Bullet” Shevchenko is simply otherworldly! Magnificent female fighter. The GOAT female for me.” Yes, he did put Shevchenko ahead of Rousey or Nunes.
But McGregor wasn’t done with the praise. He continued to share Shevchenko’s training videos, where ‘Bullet’ worked on her striking with a punching dummy. No doubt, she was pretty amazing with her drills. However, the one thing that attracted McGregor the most was the Kyrgyz champion’s affinity for firearms. We already know that ‘The Notorious’ loves guns (remember the time when he acted like a child after firing a Gatling gun?). With a reel showing ‘Bullet’s skills with a handgun, McGregor was seemingly convinced that Shevchenko deserved her moniker. Sharing the reel on his IG Story, the Irishman wrote, “Nickname “Bullet” not for nothing. She is a gun n– too .”
Of course, McGregor has often stood strong in support of the flyweight champion. But do you know that there was one instance where ‘Bullet’ lost ‘Mystic Mac’s backing? Let’s take a look at what really happened.
Conor McGregor once removed his support from Valentina Shevchenko for this reason
Let’s be fair… When a close associate asks for advice, you have to give them enough support to propel them towards great success. And that’s what ‘The Notorious’ did when Molly McCann asked him for some advice ahead of her fight against Erin Blanchfield at UFC 281. And this was the time when McGregor backed away from keeping his support for Shevchenko.
In a video shared by The MacLife on Instagram, McCann was seen reading out her DMs with McGregor. Therein, ‘Mystic Mac’ had written, “You are the UFC women’s champion on her way. You’re going to sleep Valentina [Shevchenko]… Enjoy your newfound fame, keep the team tight and know the limits with the time you give. Just consider it a new job somewhat… train for real as if it’s Cage Warriors still because that’s what it is and that’s what we are, Cage Warriors.”
Unfortunately, the fighting community never really got to witness the battle between McCann and Shevchenko. After all, ‘Meatball’ called it quits and announced her retirement after facing defeat in her fight against Alexia Thainara at UFC London. It seemed like the round-one rear-naked choke took a great toll on her. On the other hand, ‘Bullet’ continued to dominate the Octagon and successfully defended her championship belt for the first time, in her second reign. She also became the first UFC fighter to collect eight rubies for her belt plate when she won back the title in the trilogy fight against Alexa Grasso at UFC 306.
What are your thoughts on McGregor’s opinion about the best female fighter in the UFC? Who do you think would have won had Rousey and Nunes battled against Shevchenko? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
The post Ronda Rousey, Amanda Nunes Snubbed as Conor McGregor Crowns Valentina Shevchenko the MMA Female GOAT appeared first on EssentiallySports.
