Valentina Shevchenko opens the door for a potential showdown with Kayla Harrison

Valentina Shevchenko has her own big match planned for later this month, but the flyweight queen also recently took the time to address some of Kayla Harrison’s recent comments. Shevchenko will defend her 125-pound crown against former strawweight titleholder, who gave up her belt for the chance to become a two-division UFC champion, Zhang Weili. This superfight will take place during the co-main event of UFC 322 on November 15.

While Weili has the opportunity to potentially enter that rarefied aura of two division champions in UFC history, Shevchenko could potentially punch her ticket to her own opportunity with the same historic move if she wins next week at Madison Square Garden. Harrison plans to fight Amanda Nunes at an undisclosed date and mentioned interest in fighting someone like Shevchenko on the White House card for the summer of 2026.

In conversation with Mike Bohn from MMA junkie‘The Bullet’ addressed the UFC bantamweight champion’s recent comments, as Shevchenko said:

“Kayla is a very good fighter, physically very strong, and it would certainly be a great fight. But I don’t look past my fight. You know me: I always focus on the challenge right in front of me. My challenge is UFC 322. We can come back to this question after the fight.”

Valentina Shevchenko, her previous bantamweight history and the Amanda Nunes factor

Valentina Shevchenko has carved her way into the top women’s MMA fighter at flyweight, but she’s also done incredible things at bantamweight. She had a few close fights with Amanda Nunes and although Nunes defeated Shevchenko both times, many thought their rematch on the scorecards could have easily gone to Shevchneko as well.

The ensuing clash with Nunes resulted in Shevchenko moving up to flyweight, without any sort of cross-division superfight between the two champions. It turns out that Shevchenko is still somewhat thinking about a trilogy affair with Nunes, as Shevchenko said [via MMA Junkie],

“Long time [Nunes] was the only reason I would return to 135. It was just one name, unfinished business I had with Amanda. When she retired, I lost interest in that, and now, let’s see. Rumor has it she hasn’t retired yet, but let’s see if that becomes a reality.”