Valentina Shevchenko rolled to a unanimous-decision victory over Liz Carmouche to retain her women's flyweight championship belt at UFC Uruguay on Saturday night.
Shevchenko carried the pace in a five-round bout that was short on action. She landed 42 significant strikes, well ahead of Carmouche's 18, and she also recorded the lone takedown of the fight.
Shevchenko and Carmouche landed a combined 60 significant strikes (42 for Shevchenko and 18 for Carmouche). Per @ESPNStatsInfo, that’s the 3rd fewest in the modern era for a UFC title fight that went five rounds. (1. Sherk-Franca @ 41, 2. DJ-Elliott @ 52.)
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) August 11, 2019
"Bullet" scored a knockdown of Carmouche in the third round and added a spinning back fist in the fourth.
The champ drops Carmouche in round 3! #UFCUruguay pic.twitter.com/GWqjw9QAuj
— UFC (@ufc) August 11, 2019
With the win, Shevchenko improved to 18-3 and evened the series after a TKO loss to Carmouche in 2010.
After the fight, she called for a third clash with bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. Nunes beat Shevchenko by decision at UFC 196 in 2016, and again at UFC 215 the following year.