NEWARK, N.J. – There comes a pressure when holding the Shevchenko family name.
Antonina Shevchenko, who suffered her first pro loss in her most recent outing, continues to be motivated by her sister Valentina, the UFC’s women’s flyweight champion.
Antonina (7-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) takes on Lucie Pudilova (8-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC) on Saturday at UFC on ESPN 5 in Newark, N.J., and will have her sister in her corner, like always. Valentina however, is competing a week later in Uruguay, when she defends her title vs. Liz Carmouche.
“Having my sister here, by my side means very much – it’s a lot for me,” Shevchenko told MMA Junkie. “All the support that I have, and she will definitely be OK in her fight in Uruguay because we’re going after this fight – so she’s not missing anything for her training camp. She had good training here in Newark, and it’s just great. It’s all support.”
Antonina gets to see her sister’s UFC belts hung up on the wall of their house every day, which provides a daily motivation for “La Pantera,” who also hopes to become UFC champion one day.
“The belts that we have, they’re not my UFC belts, of course, but her belt that we have in our house, it just means a lot for me too,” Shevchenko said. “It keeps me motivated all the time when I see them because we have two – the old style and the new style, and they mean a lot to me to keep me motivated.”
She suffered her first career blemish to veteran Roxanne Modafferi at UFC on ESPN+ 7 which put a halt on her pursuit to climb the flyweight rankings. All she can do is go back to the drawing board, as she goes into her fight with Pudilova on Aug, 3.
“Losses, they’re not very pleasant – not a very pleasant feeling that they give you,” Shevchenko said. “Of course, you understand that you didn’t perform like you had to perform and it’s a sad thing. But apart from this, every fight gives you a different experience, and the losses, of course, also. It brought me back. I wanted to go up the rankings. I wanted to go to the top of the division. Now I’m kind of starting over, but I’m ready – nothing to do (but) just keep going, keep training, keep pushing harder and harder every training to be a better fighter for each fight.
“The sad thing about this loss is that it was a close fight. I won the first round, she won the second round, and the third round was kind of the decisive round. I started to strike her, then she kind of started to control me, and then I reversed her – it was that little bit that wasn’t enough.”
As soon as she lost, she went right to the UFC matchmakers asking for a quick turnaround. While she would have loved to fight on the same card as Valentina, she’s just happy to get back in there and erase the bad taste of the loss. She’s looking forward to standing and trading with the always game Pudilova.
“I wanted to fight as soon as possible because I wanted to close this loss as soon as possible,” Shevchenko said. “As soon as the UFC got back to me, and the opponent was Lucie Pudilova, I accepted and I think it’s a good matchup for me. It’s not an easy opponent – there’s no easy opponent in the UFC. But Pudilova, from her fights I saw her (as) a fighter who pushes forward, trading – like every time, keeps pushing the whole fight. She doesn’t stop, so I’m ready for this and I’m ready to push and give her my pressure.”
