Valentina Shevchenko was convinced she had done enough to pry the Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight title from Amanda Nunes. She was wrong.
Nunes retained the 135-pound championship, improved to 2-0 in her head-to-head series with Shevchenko and took a split decision over the Kyrgyzstani kickboxer in the UFC 215 main event on Saturday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta. All three judges scored it 48-47: Sal D’Amato and David Therien for Nunes, Tony Weeks for Shevchenko. The gold was going nowhere.
Neither woman managed to distance herself from the other.