Erin Blanchfield may just be next in line for a title-shot in the UFC women’s flyweight division, but she’ll have to use her elite Jiu-Jitsu skills to defeat Valentina Shevchenko in order to take home the belt. Many people beleive that her most recent submission win over Jessica Andrade should be enough to see her to a title-shot, and she echoed those sentiments in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour. She explained why the makeup of the division makes that her the next logical fight for Shevchenko:
“I think this fight puts me right in line for the next title shot. Taila [Santos] was supposed to fight me and she pulled out at the last minute and then Manon [Fiorot] is hurt for a while. Valentina and Grasso are fighting [at UFC 285] literally in like a week and a half or so. I think having me fight for the title next just makes sense.”
Because Erin Blanchfield might be just a matter of months away from a title-fight against Valentina Shevchenko, she also took the time to evaluate her potential opponent as well:
“Valentina, I don’t think it’s any secret her striking is very good. Her Muay Thai is very crisp. She even has some decent body lock takedowns. But I think on the actual floor, her jiu-jitsu, it’s not bad. It’s just very, very basic. I don’t think she has many submissions. I don’t think she can get out from certain positions very well, like what we saw against Taila. I kind of think that’s where her game is probably the most basic and probably could use some improvement.”
“I know I could fight with Valentina anywhere, but against anybody in the flyweight division, I know that my jiu-jitsu is better. I can finish anybody.”
The full interview with Erin Blanchfield where she assessed Valentina Shevchenko and her Jiu-Jitsu was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of MMAFighting:
