Daniel Cormier believes that Valentina Shevchenko still poses a legitimate threat to Amanda Nunes’ lengthy reign. ‘The Lioness’ defended her featherweight title against Felicia Spencer at UFC 250 this past weekend. Their matchup resulted in a one-sided five round victory for the two division champion, which once again brought in to question the role of a corner, when the challenger was allowed to enter the final round; despite sustaining major damage throughout the previous twenty minutes.
Nunes has already defeated Shevchenko twice during her UFC career. Their first matchup ended with a clear decision victory at UFC 196 in a non-championship bout. However, their second fight was much closer and resulted in a close split decision title defence for the champion at UFC 215.
With Nunes two fights up on Shevchenko, Dana White doesn’t see any point in a third bout. But Cormier told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani (transcribed by BJPenn.com) that ‘The Bullet’ is still the only woman who can end the dominant reign of ‘The Lioness’.
“[Spencer] got washed out, it was not competitive. It once again showed that there’s one person in the world that can fight Amanda Nunes, and that’s the champion at 125 [pounds, Valentina Shevchenko]. Right now, unless someone completely separates themself and goes through these divisions, there’s never gonna be a time where she goes into a fight and you wonder if she’s gonna lose the way that she’s been fighting.”
Cormier went on to address the fan who cashed in on a huge $1 million bet against Spencer at UFC 250. The former heavyweight champion used this as evidence to prove that Nunes is the greatest of all time.
“Now here’s the deal. We talked about this a lot on the broadcast. Somebody bet a million dollars to make $165,000. Has there ever been a million-dollar bet that seemed so safe in hindsight? It seemed so safe, right? After watching that fight, I know we made the comment at the beginning of the show, ‘wow dude bet $1 million,’ but I don’t think there’s ever been a more secure $165,000 return on anything as it was in the fight between Amanda and Felicia.”
Do you think that Valentina Shevchenko still poses a threat to Amanda Nunes?
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