Joe Rogan’s job was made harder by Valentina Shevchenko during her reign of dominance at flyweight.
For several years, it was incredibly hard to make the case for any challenger having what it takes to beat the defending champion at 125 pounds.
The gap between Shevchenko and everyone else seemed large until she was shockingly dethroned by Alexa Grasso at UFC 285.
Now that ‘Bullet’ has regained the title and closed out her trilogy with Grasso, she has a new challenger in Manon Fiorot who will pose some interesting questions at UFC 315.
During her peak years where Shevchenko racked up wins and accolades, even the UFC commentators struggled to outline where her opponents might find success.
Joe Rogan says he couldn’t imagine how Katlyn Cerminara would possibly beat Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 247
Joe Rogan stated on an episode of his podcast that selling the idea that one of Valentina Shevchenko’s challengers could beat her was particularly difficult.
At UFC 247 in 2020, the flyweight champion looked to make her third title defense against Katlyn Cerminara, formerly Chookagian, on the same night that Jon Jones defeated Dominick Reyes.
Cerminara had already faced many of the top contenders in the division with her only losses in the UFC coming via split decision to the previous two title challengers in Jessica Eye and Liz Carmouche.
With back-to-back wins behind her, the American was the clear top contender but she was still a big underdog heading into February 8.
Joined by Angela Hill on episode 92 of the ‘JRE MMA Show’, Rogan said that despite Cerminara’s success inside the Octagon, he found it difficult to hype up the matchup by stating how she could get her hand raised.
The veteran commentator said that given their styles, he couldn’t imagine how the challenger would come away with the win even in a sport as unpredictable as MMA.
“That fight, I did my best to pump up Katlyn Chookagian to make it seem like it’s gonna be a good fight but all I could think of was like how is this girl gonna beat her? How are you gonna beat her? She does everything perfect.
“Katlyn, she uses points. She scores well but she very rarely knocks people out like she knocked down Liz Carmouche with a head kick but Liz survived and wound up winning a decision. Valentina makes you pay.”
Valentina Shevchenko dominated Katlyn Cerminara before stopping her at UFC 247
As Joe Rogan predicted, it was clear from an early stage in the fight that Katlyn Cerminara would have to pull off something miraculous to beat Valentina Shevchenko.
The flyweight champion won both of the first two rounds before, in the third, she trapped her challenger in a crucifix position to rain down ground and pound for the stoppage win.
In doing so, ‘Bullet’ became the first person to stop the American after outlanding her opponent and securing all three of her attempted takedowns.
Cerminara has not fought since March of 2024, having suffered back-to-back losses to Manon Fiorot and Maycee Barber.