Valentina Shevchenko has had an unfortunate several weeks. First she was scheduled to fight for the flyweight title against Nicco Montano for UFC 228, but the bout fell through when Montano had to be transported to the hospital after struggling to make weight.
This left Joanna Jedrzejczyk as an interesting option, who expressed interest in moving up in weight to fight Shevchenko. A title fight was announced for UFC 231 between the two. But when they desperately needed a title fight for UFC 230 and Jedrzejczyk wasn’t interested in fighting that quickly, the 3-2 Sijara Eubanks was inserted in against Shevchenko.