UFC 213: Valentina Shevchenko looking for redemption against Amanda Nunes in Las Vegas

UFC welterweight and commentator Dan Hardy previews this weekend’s event as UFC celebrates the climax of International Fight Week in Las Vegas with a women’s bantamweight title bout

Amanda Nunes of Brazil and Valentina Shevchenko of Kyrgyzstan face off during the weigh-in (Getty)

Las Vegas has once again been taken over by UFC fans, as they flood into the city for another International Fight week. The crescendo of this week’s festivities will be Saturday’s main card, featuring two of the best heavyweights, two of the best middleweights and the two best female bantamweights in the world. Highly decorated combat sports athlete and top ranked heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem will be facing former UFC champion and current number one contender Fabricio Werdum. That fight will follow the main card opener between former lightweight champion Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis and divisional veteran Jim Miller.

In the co-main event we have another battle for number one contender, but as middleweight champion Michael Bisping is out with a knee injury, the fight between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker will be for the interim world title. Romero has been lingering near the top of the division for some time and many feel like he was deserving of a title shot a while ago. With a win here over Whittaker, Romero is guaranteed to be next in line to challenge Bisping. The closer the fight gets though, the more opinion seems to be shifting towards Robert Whittaker: since moving to middleweight six fights ago he has looked unstoppable and his last victory over Jacare Souza confirmed that he is the dark horse at 185lbs.

Representing Australia and New Zealand, Whittaker is driven by the possibility of being the first to take a UFC belt back to that part of the world. He is a quiet, friendly, family man with a great work ethic and some obvious natural physical gifts. Speed and power are his most useful attributes and with a lifetime of martial arts training under his belt, Whittaker has become one of the division’s most dangerous strikers. Yoel Romero on the other hand, is an Olympic level wrestler with more physical attributes than most of the rest of the division combined.

Although we only see glimpses of his wrestling prowess, as he beats most opponents with striking, when we have seen him get a hold of an opponent he throws them around like its nothing. His explosiveness takes people by surprise as he tends to fight very loose and relaxed, until he decides to put it on someone and then he moves at a tremendous speed. Whittaker is a sharper and more disciplined striker with fast reactions and pinpoint countering. Romero’s weakness is that he telegraphs a lot of his movement, so if Whittaker is on his game and paying close attention to what his foe is doing, there is a good chance he can land his counter left hook.

The key to winning this fight will be patience, especially considering that it will be contested over five rounds. Any exchanges that these two get into will be fast and lethal, so entering into them with absolute awareness and a healthy respect of the dangers would be wise. With Romero being on the longest current win streak in the division and Whittaker looking like a different athlete all together since moving up a division, either of these will be worthy of a title shot. It may be the last chance for a 40 year old Romero, whilst it may be too early for the 26 year old Whittaker. Will youth or wisdom be the deciding factor on this night, or will it simply be down to who lands first?

Once that fight is in the history books and Michael Bisping knows his next challenger, we move on to the main event. Valentina ‘The Bullet’ Shevchenko will get a shot at redemption as she rematches Amanda ‘The Lioness’ Nunes. In their first encounter at UFC 196 last year, Nunes left with the decision but I think everyone agrees that, although the first two rounds were largely dominated by the ‘Lioness’, Shevchenko clearly won the third stanza. That makes this even more interesting because, not only is Amanda now the champion which means the belt is up for grabs, but this will be a five round fight instead of three.

Shevchenko must feel like the momentum had shifted in her favour in their first fight and had there been another 10 minutes to work, her conditioning and experience would have come into play. Nunes is the bigger, more physical fighter. She made her way to the top by bullying opponents around the Octagon and beating them with an aggressive boxing style. Her Judo experience makes her wily in the clinch and she’s shown great balance, scrambling and takedown defence against strong grapplers like Sarah McMann, Cat Zingano and in her successful title shot against Miesha Tate a year ago.

Romero has been lingering near the top of the division for some time (Getty)

Most of the time the pressure and power-punching is too much for the opposition and they fold under the Nunes offensive. Shevchenko however, showed toughness and a lot of heart to withstand the first 10 minutes of heat and was able to come back fighting - a new experience in the Octagon for Nunes and a lesson that will surely have made her a better fighter. Whatever lessons were learned in that first tilt need to be brought to the forefront of their minds. This rematch could turn out to be the toughest test of either fighter’s career, especially given the fact that they know each other so well.

For Nunes this is one more step in the journey to cement her legacy. For Shevchenko it will be the opportunity to grasp the dream she has been chasing and get the validation she seeks for years of hard work. Nunes is ferocious and prepared to go through anyone that wants to take her title. Shevchenko is a technician with clinical precision and a wealth of combat sport experience. It is safe to say that she is preparing to go through hell to get her hands on that UFC gold. There is no doubt in my mind that these are the two best female bantamweights in the world and this weekend they will prove it. I expect a very competitive fight with a lot of back and forth action.

Plenty of other great fights throughout the night including the preliminary card headliner which sees ninth-ranked heavyweight Travis Browne taking on the Russian submission machine, Aleksei Oleinik. Oleinik is 3-1 in the UFC so far and all of his wins came in the first round. His overall professional record though is an impressive 51-10-1 and with a nickname like ‘The Boa Constrictor’ you can bet that Browne is planning on a long range fight!

Watch UFC 213: Nunes vs. Shevchenko 2 live on BT Sport 2 from 1am BST on the morning of Sunday 9th July, or catch the Early Prelims exclusively on UFC Fight Pass from 11:30pm BST on Saturday