The victory of Jessica Andrade, a boxer in the top 3 of UFC, turned Erin Blanchfield into a face mentioned a lot in recent years. She said her next goal was to a championship with Valentina Shevchenko in the earliest time.
“I am capable of fighting a belt match after winning Andrade, but if UFC wants me to play more matches to prove myself no problem,” Blanchfield said. She predicted Valentina Shevchenko would beat Alexa Grasso at UFC 285 to continue holding the belt, but Blanchfield wanted to be the one who won the belt.
Before Blanchfield's statement, Valentina Shevchenko said she felt that the opponent seemed to have said too much before the match took place. The defending champion of UFC's Flywc weight -class champion affirms that two people have a huge difference in age, class and competition experience.
“It was funny when Erin said that. She was only 23 years old and played 5 matches for UFC,” Shevchenko said. In fact, the time when Shevchenko defended his current championship longer than the number of days Blanchfield joined UFC. Besides Amanda Nunes, she is considered one of the two most powerful female fighters UFC right now.
Commenting on Blanchfield, Shevchenko added: “She is acting like a puppy, trying to cry loudly to feel happy. This world is very large, there are many difficulties ahead but Erin has not realized. Must go through those things, she mature and know how to behave properly.”
As for UFC President Dana White, he thought that Blanchfield was able to compete for the championship with Shevchenko in the near future. Shevchenko himself also judged the junior as a good boxer, but the victory over Andrade was more or less lucky because Brazilian boxers had too little preparation time before the competition.