Valentina Shevchenko moves up in UFC Women’s pound-for-pound rankings after dethroning another champion

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Saiyed Adeem Karim

Valentina Shevchenko is now second in the UFC Women’s pound-for-pound rankings after her win over Jennifer Maia

UFC 255 was a great event for the Shevchenko sisters as both Valentina and Antonina picked up impressive wins.

Antonina defeated Ariane Lipski and left her rival with a facial fracture in all this. Valentina, for her part, defended her UFC Flyweight title against Maia. The Bullet faced a tough battle early on but she dominated her way to another impressive win.

Valentina Shevchenko defeated Jennifer Maia at UFC 255
Valentina Shevchenko of Kyrgyzstan punches Jennifer Maia of Brazil in their women’s flyweight championship bout during the UFC 255 event at UFC APEX on November 21, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Shevchenko is one of the best female fighters ever and she was ranked #3 in the pound-for-pound standings prior to this. However, the win inched her closer to the Lioness, Amanda Nunes, and Valentina is second in the rankings now.

She usurped another champion in Zhang Weili. The Strawweight Champion is undefeated in her UFC career but this win for Shevchenko did enough to take her up to second.

Can anyone dethrone Nunes?

The Brazilian remains one of the best ever in the Octagon and no one seems to be able to dethrone her. Shevchenko has lost twice to the Brazilian while Nunes seems to have everyone else’s number.

Nunes was to fight Megan Anderson at UFC 256 but pulled out due to an injury. While no one seems to be able to get the better of her, another star did make a move up in the pound-for-pound rankings after UFC 255.

Amanda Nunes and her wife, Nina Ansaroff are UFC stars
Nina Ansaroff (R) celebrates with teammate/girlfriend Amanda Nunes after defeating Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger (not pictured) during the UFC Fight Night event at the at Talking Stick Resort Arena on January 15, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Katlyn Chookagian defeated Cynthia Calvillo and moved up a couple of spots in the rankings. The Blonde Fighter is now ranked 10th while Calvillo is 12th. Some other big names make up the top 10 in the UFC Women’s pound-for-pound rankings though.

Former champions Rose Namajunas, Jessica Andrade and Joanna Jedrzejczyk are fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

Germaine de Randamie, Holly Holm and Aspen Lado make up the rest of the top 10. The other names in the top 15 include Nina Ansaroff, the wife of Nunes, Yan Xiaonan, Claudia Gadelha and Julianna Pena.

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