The Greatest Female Mixed Martial Artist Of All Time Does It Again!

 Valentina Shevchenko successfully defended her flyweight championship for a sixth time at #UFC266. Leaving many to question, what's next? Well considering she's cleaned out the entire top 5 in dominating fashion and most of the top 15 contenders can't get past the top 5 gatekeepers, the answer seems obvious... Amanda Nunes Trilogy!

Not so fast though! Dana White says he's not interested in seeing that fight and honestly neither am I. We've seen it twice and many people believe Valentina beat her for the bantemweight strap. So even if she were to win in the trilogy we're not learning anything new. Plus what's she going to do, waste time reigning over the least active and most shallow division in MMA? Boring right. Now a fight with "Thug" Rose Namajunas is the biggest and best challenge Valentina can face in the near future.
 
Valentina is 32 years old and clearly in her fighting prime. So outside of a catastrophic injury or if she decides to take a couple years off to go start a family with Pavel Fedotov, I don't she her losing to anyone other than maybe Rose for the next five years or so.
 
That being said, it's not like the flyweight division is lacking young up and coming talent, but someone with the dedication, passion and skills that Valentina possesses, there is not. At least not yet. So for now let's have some fun speculating who the contenders could be in the coming years for Valentina.

First that comes to mind with her recent dominate win over crafty veteran Roxanne Modafferi would be Taila Santos. She's 18-1 and actually matches up fairly well with Valentina. She's a Muay Thai fighter that has developed strong grappling with smothering top control. With an impressive top 5 win in her next time out, she could find her self in title contention very soon.

Unfortunately outside of Santos and potentially another scrap with Andrade there is no one currently in the flyweight top 15 that will likely fight Valentina in the next year, maybe two. So with the aging fighters currently lingering in the top 15 unlikely to compete for the title any time soon, let's speculate which fighters will likely be top contenders within the next couple years.
 
The following is a list of very talented and exciting fighters(in no particular order) who I see as top prospects, contenders and future champions: Andrea Lee, Sabina Mazo, Maryna Moroz, JJ Aldrich, Miranda Maverick, Alexa Grasso, Mayra Bueno Silva, Manon Fiorot, Erin Blanchfield, Mariya Agapova, Tracy Cortez, Melissa Gatto and Casey O'Neill. Just to name a few. There are also a handful of fighters outside of the UFC I'd like to see among the ranks or potentially in a crossover fight: Jingnan Xiong, Juliana Velasquez, Tiffany Teo, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and Sumiko Inaba.
 
Which brings me to my next and final point of speculation. Valentina once again proclaimed to be a Muay Thai. I say lets prove it! With the recent mixed rules bout between Demetrious Johnson and Rodtang Jitmuangnon announced and the relationship between the UFC and OneFC, I see no reason why we can't see a crossover mixed rules or Muay Thai bout between Valentina and anyone of OneFC's finest. This will spice things up for the combat sports world and give the UFC's woman's flyweight stable time to catch up. What say you?

#MMAFandS #CombatInc #PankrationNation #ValentinaShevchenko