The key players booked for May’s UFC 315 in Montreal assembled in the Quebec city on Wednesday for a press conference coinciding with the event’s on-sale date.
Those included welterweight champ Belal Muhammad and challenger Jack Della Maddalena, as well as women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko, and challenger Manon Fiorot, plus Canadians Jasmine Jasudavicius and Aiemann Zahabi.
Shevchenko is now on her second reign over the 125lb division, with Fiorot representing a challenger many have been eagerly awaiting. The French fighter has not lost since 2018, and sits on a 12 fight win streak. Her only defeat, in fact, came in her pro debut.
While there hasn’t been a ton of heat between the pair so far, at Wednesday’s presser, Shevchenko took umbrage with Fiorot’s chatter online, without specifying what exactly Fiorot had said that got under her skin.
“It’s interesting that Manon, she’s kind of like saying about herself that she’s a karate person. I know that Karate is all about respect, about huge things like being the right martial artist,” stated Shevchenko. “But after throwing comments online on Twitter, it’s like she’s doing not karate, she’s coming from like Savate.”
Savate, a French martial art, has a reputation more as a street fighting discipline, which might have been what Shevchenko was getting at. In any case, Fiorot, seated on the opposite side of the stage, then expressed her disappointment at the champ not calling her out.
“I was present when Valentina fought the last time, and I was expecting her to say my name in the octagon. And she didn’t, and I was pretty disappointed,” said Fiorot.
“She’s thinking that I have to call her name and stuff like that?” questioned the champ in response? “No, it’s enough that she’s calling my name.”
Challengers make callouts. Champions just fight, at least that seems to be the message from Valentina Shevchenko. Later, “Bullet” would explain that from day one, it has been about winning and being the best when it comes to her competing in mixed martial arts.
“From the beginning when I started training martial arts, when I started when I was five years old, it always was my goal— it’s not to compete just for competition, it’s not just for having fun, no it’s for the victory. This is the goal, the main goal.”
“No matter who is in front of me, I really don’t care. I’ve always been that fighter: It doesn’t matter who, it doesn’t matter where and when.” Shevchenko added that she was ready to fight, to put on her best performance, and show the best side of her. And come May 10 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, to “put [on a] show for the Canadian fans in Montreal, and make this fight card unbelievable.”
