UFC 332 New Main Event, Valentina Shevchenko Vacates Title

UFC 332 finally has a main event, and the promotion’s solution has reshaped the women’s flyweight division.

Natalia Silva will fight Wang Cong for the women’s flyweight championship on October 3 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Not an interim belt. The real one. That is possible because Valentina Shevchenko is no longer the champion.

The UFC announced both developments on Saturday during the UFC Paris broadcast.

UFC 332 Key Facts

Why Valentina Shevchenko Is No Longer Champion

Shevchenko withdrew from UFC 332 earlier in the week with an undisclosed injury. Once the expected layoff came into focus at roughly a year, the title went with her.

Play-by-play voice John Gooden delivered the news on the broadcast, saying Shevchenko is expected to be sidelined for at least a year and has vacated the belt. There is no suggestion of misconduct and no disciplinary element here. A division cannot go a year without an active champion, and the UFC moved.

One nuance has not been cleared up. The commentators did not say whether Shevchenko chose to give up the title so the division could move on, or whether the promotion made the decision for her. Both readings are live and the UFC has not clarified.

What has been said is that Shevchenko will get a title shot when she is cleared to return.

Her second reign ends with three defenses, over Alexa Grasso, Manon Fiorot and Zhang Weili. Losing a championship outside the cage is a strange way for a run like that to end.

Natalia Silva vs. Wang Cong Now Crowns a New Champion

Silva was already the fighter in line. She is 20-5-1 with an 8-0 record in the UFC and a 14-fight winning streak, built on wins over three former champions in Rose Namajunas, Alexa Grasso and Jessica Andrade. She was supposed to challenge the reigning champion. Instead she fights a replacement opponent for a vacant belt, which is a different night with the same prize at the end of it.

Wang is 10-1 and arrives on a four-fight winning streak, most recently a decision over Tracy Cortez at UFC 329 in July. Her UFC run started with a 62-second knockout of Victoria Leonardo in 2024, then hit a wall when Gabriella Fernandes submitted her that November for the only loss of her career. Everything since has been a rebuild.

Neither woman has held a UFC title. One of them will on October 3.

More UFC Coverage

• UFC 332 Replacement Fight Could Set Up an Epic Rematch 11 Years in the Making
• Yair Rodriguez Is Out of Noche UFC and Jean Silva’s New Opponent Changes Everything
• Dana White Delivers Huge News to Long-Time Title Contender

Wang Cong Already Has History With Shevchenko

Wang beat Shevchenko by unanimous decision over three rounds at Kunlun Fight 33 in Changde, China, on October 31, 2015. That was kickboxing, contested at 132 pounds with a Kunlun Fight title on the line, and it was the last kickboxing appearance of Shevchenko’s career before she debuted in the UFC two months later.

The two have never fought in MMA. Wang has been asking for that version since she signed, and Shevchenko has been dismissive about it, telling her to earn the spot.

Winning a world championship qualifies as earning it.

What This Means When Shevchenko Returns

Nothing here is scheduled, and none of it should be read as booked.

If Shevchenko recovers on the timeline the UFC described, she comes back to a division with a champion she has never fought in MMA. If that champion is Wang, the promotion has a former champion, a new champion, a decade-old result from another sport and a title on the line, all in the same fight.

If it is Silva, the UFC has the fight it was already trying to make before the injury.

Either way Shevchenko has been told a title shot is waiting. What she does not have is a year to spare, and she turns 39 in March.

UFC 332 Card