Valentina Shevchenko had her way against the debuting Priscilia Cachoeira from start to her second round submission finish tonight at UFC Fight Night 125.
Round One:
Shevchenko misses with her opening leg kick, but when Cachoeira tries to attack, she lands a clean left hand.
Cachoeira wants to brawl early, but Shevchenko connects with a few more hard shots and already has the newcomer in some trouble here.
Now Shevcheko works into a takedown and lands it. Working inside Cachoeira’s guard she starts softening her up with punches to the body.
Hard elbow strike to the head from Shevcheko. Now she’s just dropping a series of hard right hands and elbow and Cachoeira’s face is getting mashed here and is already bleeding heavily.
Another hard elbow for Shevchenko. Cachoeira’s not going to last long at this rate as the mat underneath her is now sprayed with blood. Two more elbows land and Cachoeira is not able to defend any of these successfully.
Cachoeira trying to lock Shevchenko down, but that’s not going to happen. More elbows. Then a rapid-fire series of punches to the body and then back to the head with elbow strikes. Right hands connect and mercifully the round ends for Cachoeira. Nightmare round for the newcomer and in a minute she’s going to have to face it all over again.
Round Two:
Cachoeira’s corner do a good job of cleaning her up between rounds. Opening 15 seconds and Shevchenko fires off a few punches and then trips her opponent straight back to the canvas again, this time in the center of the cage.
Shevchenko in side control and then traps her opponent in the crucifix position and starts landing unanswered right hands. Now Shevchenko thinking about a submission, but lets go of that quickly and opts to keep in side control.
Cachoeira gets stuck in the crucifix position again. She’s just completely overwhelmed here and the ref could really just stop this at any time now as it’s not going to get any better for the Brazilian.
Shevchenko patiently continuing to chip away at her opponent. She tries to move into full mount, then decides against it and stays where she is.
Again she tries for full mount and this time she secures it. Now she unloads with a series of left and right hands and Cachoeira gives up her back.
Shevchenko flattens her out and lands more punches. Cachoeira still fighting to escape, but as she turns again Shevcheko works for a rear-naked choke and that forces a quick tapout from the Brazilian to finally put her out of her misery at 4.25mins of the second round.
Great all-round performance from Shevchenko, though she should have made her flyweight debut against a higher-caliber fighter, if not an immediate title shot.
