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Valentina Shevchenko did not appear too impressed with Erin Blanchfield's recent performance against former UFC strawweight champion Jessica Andrade.
Blanchfield recently took on Andrade, who stepped up as a short-notice replacement, in the main event of UFC Fight Night 219. 'Cold Blooded' made light work of the Brazilian and finished her with a rear-naked choke in the second round.
In an interview with James Lynch, Shevchenko opined that Andrade took Taila Santos' place on short-notice and thus, may not have been at her best come fight night. According to Shevchenko, the fight might have played out differently if the Brazilian had more time to prepare.
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'Bullet' also went on to say that she does not consider Blanchfield to be a title contender yet.
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"Frankly, I have huge doubts that Jessica even trained for that fight. I think she was relaxing on the beach in Brazil and then, 'Oh my god. I have a call.' Do you wanna fight in one week?. She said, 'Yes, why not? I gain some money.' and she went in there... Yes, Erin won [legitimately], she did good but the other question was, 'Was Jessica the same Jessica as she is?'... Erin, she's talking too much right now, using the opportunity to bring her name up and yeah, she's young. She's kind of like 23 years old. This is what she has to do but I think, for the title fight, she is still green... For me, she looks like a little, happy puppy."
Check out Valentina Shevchenko's comments below:
Valentina Shevchenko will defend her title in March
Valentina Shevchenko will return to action on March 4. For her eighth flyweight title defense, 'Bullet' will take on Alexa Grasso in the co-main event of UFC 285. The card will be headlined by a heavyweight championship bout between Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane.
Shevchenko has been ruling over the 125-pound division for quite some time and has been undefeated in her last nine outings. Grasso, on the other hand, is undefeated at flyweight and is on a four-fight win streak which includes victories over Joanne Wood and Maycee Barber.
So, it would be interesting to see how things would unfold in the co-main event of UFC 285.
