Natalia Silva is next up. Or is she?
Silva vs. Shevchenko Is THE Fight
UFC’s Women’s Flyweight Division is in a very interesting spot right now. But, don’t let UFC fool you, Natalia Silva should be the next challenger for Valentina Shevchenko’s championship. Recently, it’s felt like UFC has been making champions defend against their rightful challengers, or vacate the title. Unless you’re Jon Jones, but that’s a story for another time.
Ilia Topuria was Featherweight champion, but moved up to get a crack at the Lightweight title, so he vacated. Islam Makhachev held the UFC Lightweight title, but is looking for a shot at the Welterweight title, so he vacated and moved up. But, for some reason, it seems the rules may not apply for the women’s side of things.
Things have been leaning towards a potential bout between Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko and Strawweight champion Weili Zhang. And don’t get me wrong, that’s a great fight that a lot of fans, including me, would like to see. But, UFC has an issue with champions going for super-fights before cleaning out their divisions and in this case, there’s a flyweight challenger standing in front of everyone, but it seems everyone is looking straight past her.
This became more evident this past Saturday and really struck a chord with myself and some other fans. The 19-5 Natalia Silva is undefeated in the UFC and has not lost since 2017. Since debuting for the UFC in 2022, Natalia Silva has racked up seven straight wins against some tough competition and looked good doing it.
Silva defeated Jasmin Jasudavicius in her debut, has defeated former champion Jessica Andrade and recently defeated former champion Alexa Grasso, who took the belt off of Valentina Shevchenko before dropping it back to her. Oh yeah, and Natalia Silva defeated Grasso in dominant fashion on the same night that Valentina retained her gold against fellow contender Manon Fiorot.
That was just last month on May 10 at UFC 315. On that night, it seemed like Natalia was poised to be the next challenger. The Tuesday following her win, Natalia moved up in the division and became the number one ranked Flyweight challenger. But then, just 20 odd days later, it all changed.
This past Saturday, the fourth ranked Erin Blanchfield was set to take on the fifth ranked Maycee Barber in the main event of UFC Vegas 107. Valentina Shevchenko was in the house at the UFC Apex to watch the bout go down and scout out what they said would be a potential “next challenger.” Unfortunately, Maycee Barber had some medical issues and pulled out of the fight seconds before walking to the cage, cancelling that main event.
Following the cancelation, Valentina was interviewed on the post show where the hosts and the champ herself made mention of Weili moving up from Strawweight to challenge her in a champion vs. champion bout. So, not only did they overlook Silva for two contenders who are ranked behind her, they then overlook her for someone in a completely different division.
Again, Valentina vs. Weill would be an amazing fight, there’s no disputing that. Both women are currently number one and number two ranked in the women’s pound-for-pound list. That fight would be incredible. But, clear out your division before looking at other champions!
To make matters worse, both Valentina and Weili have called each other out and Dana White seems to like that fight. So, it’s probably going to happen. So, what does this mean? Does Weili Zhang keep her title and move up to challenge Shevchenko and bypass these new rules? Or does Weili vacate her title and leave her division stranded, leaving the Strawweight’s #1 contender Virna Jandiroba looking for a vacant title fight? Does this leave Natalia Silva sitting on the bench for a year waiting for a potential shot at the Flyweight title, and that’s on assumption Shevchenko retains?
This is a weird position to be in for the streaking Natalia Silva. If she waits and Weili wins, then they do a rematch between Weili and Valentina, making Silva wait longer. Or, does she just fight someone else in the time being?
The real answer should be neither. The real answer is for the UFC and Valentina Shevchenko to stop overlooking Natalia Silva and give her a title fight before thinking about the potential champion vs. champion super-fight. Natalia Silva deserves a title shot and it’s blasphemy if she’s not next in line. Sorry, Weili. While none of this is confirmed and nothing is official as of now, let’s hope the challenger gets her rightful shot.
Wake Up! Stop sleeping on Natalia Silva.
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