Valentina Shevchenko has suffered an injury that will leave her sidelined for up to a year, and she has elected to surrender the UFC women’s flyweight championship.
As a result, following rumors of a potential interim title fight between the two headlining, Natalia Silva vs. Wang Cong will indeed serve as the UFC 332 main event in Salt Lake City on October 3, but now for the undisputed UFC women’s flyweight championship.
The UFC confirmed the news during the UFC Paris main card.
Silva has won 14 straight in her career, having not lost since a loss to Marina Rodriguez at the end of 2017. She is 8-0 in the UFC since her promotional debut in 2022, and she enters this fight off back-to-back decision wins over former UFC champions Alexa Grasso and Rose Namajunas.
Cong is 10-1 and has won four straight. She enters this fight off a win over Tracy Cortez at UFC 329 in July.
Shevchenko had long reigned over the UFC’s female 125-pound division since winning the championship at UFC 231 in December 2018. Her sole non-victories in that span came when she lost, and eventually regained, the championship in her trilogy with Grasso.
The UFC also revealed the rest of the UFC 332 card and announced that for the first time ever an entire UFC numbered card will air on local CBS affiliates across the U.S.
The main card will also feature a co-main event between Deiveson Figueiredo and Payton Talbott, as well as King Green vs. Esteban Ribovics, the UFC debut of Roberto Soldic vs. Khaos Williams, and Ateba Gautier vs. Roman Kopylov.
