UFC flyweight champion Natalia Silva wasn’t all that amused by Valentina Shevchenko’s comments moments after she beat Wang Cong for the vacant title this past Saturday night in the main event of UFC 332.
Silva won a unanimous decision in Utah to improve to 9-0 and now holds the 125-pound belt, which was vacated after Shevchenko suffered an injury. Shevchenko, who went silent since the UFC first announced she was no longer the flyweight queen, finally sounded off after Silva’s victory.
“It’s my pleasure to know that UFC champion’s belt is now holding deserving martial artist — such as you are,” Shevchenko wrote. “But don’t get too comfortable— keep it warm, I’m coming soon for my belt!”
Silva thanked Shevchenko for congratulating her, but immediately clapped back at her in an interview with MMA Fighting.
“First of all, thank you. It’s nice that she had time to watch the fight, right?” Silva laughed. “[Nice that you had time to] follow the division, to see what’s going on in the division.”
“The first thing she already got wrong in that post was talking about how the belt is hers,” she continued. “‘My belt. I’m going to get my belt.’ The belt isn’t hers anymore, the belt is mine. I’m the champion. I fought for this, I earned it, so I’m the champion now. And as far as keeping the belt warm, she doesn’t need to worry because I’m going to take very good care of it.
“There’s not much else to say to her, really. That’s it. The belt isn’t hers, the belt is mine, and I’m going to take good care of it. Keep it warm, right? She wasn’t even keeping it warm herself. She would take a year between fights. She was fighting once a year, and now she’s talking about keeping the belt warm?”
Shevchenko last defended the title in November 2025, beating Zhang Weili via decision to stop the Chinese star from becoming a two-division titleholder. Silva was coming off victories over ex-champions Jessica Andrade and Alexa Grasso at the time, and only re-entered the cage two months later against Rose Namajunas once she realized Shevchenko would take longer to defend the belt — which she didn’t do in the end.
Unbeaten for nine years now, Silva won’t sit and wait for Shevchenko to be her first title defense.
“I want to fight soon,” Silva said. “I don’t want to sit around. I like fighting. I haven’t gotten injured, I don’t get injured in my fights, so I want to take advantage of my youth, right? I want to fight more frequently. I believe that by the beginning of the year, in the first half of the year, I’ll already want to be fighting.”
“To be honest, I’m not worried about Valentina anymore,” she added. “I wanted to fight her because she was the champion, because she had what I wanted, she had the belt. Now, whether it’s her or someone else, it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m the champion now, and I’m the one who has to defend the title. I don’t even have to think about Valentina. If she wants to fight when she comes back, and there isn’t another fight that needs to happen, we can fight, but we also have to look at the rankings and the queue because there are some girls who are doing really well and deserve to be fighting, you know?”
The Brazilian champion cited Alexa Grasso and Erin Blanchfield as potential contenders for her belt in the first quarter of 2027, but ultimately said “the division is full of tough, talented girls, and I’m here to fight and defend the title” against anyone. For now, though, all she wants is to celebrate and dream with the opportunity to one day be able to defend her throne in Brazil.
“Wow, that would be great,” Silva said. “Imagine having a fight here in Brazil? My Brazilian fans ask for that all the time, for me to fight at home. I’ve never fought in the UFC at home. Imagine that crowd, wow, going crazy, all that adrenaline. Ah, it would be great if the UFC held an event here in Brazil, and I would really love to fight.”
