A women’s bantamweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko will headline UFC 213 in Las Vegas on July 8th during International Fight Week.
Nunes had an incredible 2016 campaign, and it all began with a unanimous decision victory over Shevchenko at UFC 196, though it was a competitive fight.
The Brazilian star then produced a stunning first round TKO of Miesha Tate in the main event of UFC 200 that summer to win the 135lb title.
As if that wasn’t enough she then demolished superstar Ronda Rousey in just 48 seconds at UFC 207 in December, meaning that she’d now delmoshed the two most popular fighters in WMMA in the space of a few months, with each event racking up over a million pay-per-view buys.
Shevchenko has unfinished business with Nunes though, and she also rebounded after losing to her with two impressive victories over top contenders Holly Holm and Julianna Pena in order to reinstate herself as the divisions clear No.1 contender.
There’s no love lost between the two fighters and they argued back and forth at yesterday’s press conference, before Nunes pushed Shevchenko’s face with her fist during a heated photo-op staredown afterwards, forcing the two fighters to be held apart.