MONTREAL, QUEBEC – MAY 10: Valentina Shevchenko of Kyrgyzstan reacts after her victory in opposition to Manon Fiorot of France within the UFC flyweight championship bout in the course of the UFC 315 occasion at Bell Centre on Could 10, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Picture by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
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UFC girls’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko seems to be to make the second protection of her second title reign when she faces former UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili within the co-main occasion of the UFC 322 pay-per-view battle card. UFC 322 is headlined by one other contest between a present champ and a former titleholder who’s shifting up in weight. In that matchup, just lately topped UFC welterweight champ Jack Della Maddalena seems to be to stave off the cost of ex-UFC light-weight kingpin Islam Makhachev. We preview the Shevchenko vs. Zhang contest and have a look at the opening betting odds and line motion for the upcoming UFC 322 title battle.
UFC 322 Co-Most important Occasion: Valentina Shevchenko Vs. Zhang Weili Opening Betting Odds And Line Motion
When BetOnline introduced the opening odds for Shevchenko Vs. Zhang, the previous strawweight champ was the -140 betting favourite over Shevchenko, who opened because the +120 underdog. The betting line has shifted for the UFC 322 co-main occasion. The battle is now a choose ’em, with Shevchenko listed at -105, whereas Zhang is available in at -115.
UFC 322 Co-Most important Occasion: Valentina Shevchenko
MONTREAL, QUEBEC – MAY 10: Valentina Shevchenko of Kyrgyzstan celebrates after defeating Manon Fiorot of France to retain the ladies’s flyweight title throughout UFC 315 at Bell Centre on Could 10, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Picture by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Pictures)
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Valentina Shevchenko (25-4-1) has been with the UFC since December 2015, when the promotion signed her as a short-notice substitute for Germaine de Randamie in opposition to Sarah Kaufman on a UFC on FOX card. Shevchenko gained that bantamweight battle by break up resolution.
Shevchenko stayed at 135 for her subsequent 4 fights, going 2-2. Her wins got here in opposition to former UFC champ Holly Holm and future titleholder Julianna Pena. Her losses, each by resolution, got here in opposition to Amanda Nunes, together with a September 2017 break up resolution setback in opposition to then-champ Nunes.
Following her loss to Nunes, Shevchenko dropped to 125 kilos and went on probably the most spectacular runs within the historical past of the UFC girls’s divisions.
She put an absolute beating on Priscila Cachoeira in her UFC 125-pound debut. In her subsequent battle, Shevchenko confronted ex-women’s strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the vacant flyweight title. Shevchenko gained that scrap through resolution.
She then defended her title seven occasions earlier than falling to Grasso at UFC 285. The 2 then fought to a break up attract a September 2023 scrap. The trilogy battle between the 2 noticed Shevchenko stroll away from UFC 306 with the title back in her hands.
In her most up-to-date outing, which served because the co-main occasion of UFC 315 in Could of this 12 months, Shevchenko successfully defended her title for the primary time in her second reign with a unanimous resolution win over Manon Fiorot.
Shevchenko holds the next information within the UFC girls’s flyweight division:
Most WIns: 11
Most KO/TKO wins: 4
Longest profitable streak: 9
Most title battle wins: 10
Most battle time: 4:07:47
Most management time: 1:27:25
Most high place time: 1:15:53
Fewest strikes absorbed per minute: 1.86
Whole strikes landed: 1,963
Takedowns landed: 49
UFC 322 Co-Most important Occasion: Zhang Weili
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 09: Zhang Weili of China reacts after a victory in opposition to Tatiana Suarez within the UFC strawweight championship battle in the course of the UFC 312 occasion at Qudos Financial institution Enviornment on February 09, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Picture by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
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Zhang Weili (26-3) was in her second stint with the UFC’s 115-pound title when she determined to maneuver as much as 125 kilos and pursue the UFC flyweight championship.
The 36-year-old first captured the 115-pound belt in August 2019 in her fourth battle with the UFC. Zhang defeated Jessica Andrade through TKO on the 0:42 mark of the primary spherical of their UFC Combat Evening bout in China to seize the belt. Zhang’s first protection of her crown got here in March 2020, when she scored a break up resolution over former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Zhang’s title reign resulted in April 2021 when Rose Namajunas scored a highlight-reel head kick knockout win over the champ 78 seconds into their UFC 261 scrap. Namajunas held onto the belt within the rematch in November 2021, defeating Zhang through break up resolution.
Zhang bounced again from these back-to-back defeats in June 2022 when she as soon as once more beat Jedrzejczyk, this time scoring a knockout victory.
In November 2022, Zhang discovered herself as soon as once more preventing for the belt. She reclaimed UFC gold with a submission win over Carla Esparza.
Zhang vacates the title having defended the crown thrice in her second championship run. She defeated Amanda Lemos through resolution in August 2023, following that by beating Yan Xiaonan through resolution at UFC 300. In her most up-to-date outing, Zhang earned a decision over Tatiana Suarez within the co-main occasion of UFC 312 in February of 2025.
We could have extra on UFC 322 as battle evening approaches.
