Now it was Shevchenko’s turn to deal with this powerful, Brazilian marauder that won strawweight gold by slamming Rose Namajunas and earned her championship opportunity by putting a painful end to Chookagian’s night. Now it was Shevchenko’s turn to combat the constant forward pressure and obvious power Andrade brought to the cage, and after a couple years of relatively low-risk assignments in championship pairings, the reigning queen of the 125-pound weight class was finally going to be pushed and challenged.
Or not.
In space, Shevchenko was always expected and known to be the superior fighter, but questions lingered about how she would do in close quarters, with Andrade closing the distance, looking to grapple and use her physicality. Those questions were answered early in the opening round when the champion controlled the challenger in the clinch, muscling her way off the fence whenever she momentarily found herself there while putting Andrade on the deck five times in as many tries.
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She threw just 16 significant strikes over the first five minutes of the fight, yet still ran away with the round, and in the second, she wasted little time showing that her “toughest test to date” was no test at all.
In the second, Shevchenko picked at Andrade with sharp left hooks off the restart and outmuscled her in the clinch, defending the challenger’s attempt to twist her to the canvas before showing her how it’s done. Andrade eventually worked back to her feet, but Shevchenko once again stifled her attempt to change the placement of the fight, twisting the Brazilian to the canvas for a second time at the midway point of the round.
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Andrade wouldn’t return to the upright position until the fight was over.
Shevchenko quickly climbed into the mounted crucifix position and started unleashing a torrent of elbows, cutting Andrade and forcing the stoppage. When the champion rose to her feet, the look on her face was a blend of defiance and dominance; Maximus in the middle of the Coliseum asking, “Are you not entertained?” after effortlessly dispatching the fighter everyone thought would present her with the most challenges.
