Natalia Silva is the new UFC women's flyweight champion. She beat Wang Cong by decision at UFC 332 to claim the vacant 125-pound title, and within hours the woman who used to own that belt had already put her name on it again.
Valentina Shevchenko, the former flyweight ruler, didn't bother with congratulations. Her message to Silva, as MMA Mania reported, was "Keep my belt warm." Note the pronoun. Shevchenko still thinks of that strap as hers, and she just told the new champion so in public on the first morning of her reign.
Wang, meanwhile, went the other direction. Rather than call anybody out, she put out a statement after the loss that included a look at her scratched eye, according to AOL. She pointed to the eye injury, which she said she picked up during the bout, as a factor in how the fight played out. Whether the judges would have seen it differently with two good eyes is something nobody can prove. What she showed was a real injury from a real title fight, and she owned the result enough to explain it instead of hiding from it.
The reviews on the fight itself were split. ESPN's takeaways from the card argued that Silva, along with Payton Talbott, earned the top billing the UFC gave them. MMA Mania was colder, running a piece arguing that Silva vs. Wang wasn't the jolt women's MMA has been waiting for. A vacant-title decision rarely sets anybody's hair on fire, so the grumbling isn't a surprise. A belt is a belt, though, and Silva is the one walking out of fight week holding it.
The matchmaking conversation started immediately. MMA Sucka is already sorting through options for the new flyweight queen, and every one of those conversations runs through the same name. Shevchenko made sure of that with four words.
There are other contenders worth discussing, and the UFC will float a few. Wang will want a rematch once the eye heals, and she'll argue the injury earned her one. That's a tougher sell after a decision loss than after a robbery, and nobody is calling this a robbery.
My take: book Silva vs. Shevchenko and don't overthink it. Silva won a vacant belt, which means she still has to beat the name everyone associates with the division before the title feels fully hers. Shevchenko handed the UFC a promo on a silver platter. Silva's answer to "keep my belt warm" should be a date, a venue and a signed bout agreement, and the matchmakers should hand her the pen this week.
