Silva Drops Shevchenko Talk, Turns Full Focus to Wang Cong

Natalia Silva spent months preparing to fight Valentina Shevchenko. About 30 days before UFC 332, that fight was gone. Shevchenko had to vacate the women's flyweight title because of an injury, and Wang Cong stepped in as Silva's opponent for the vacant belt.

Silva, speaking through a translator on Wednesday, described how complete the preparation had been. "We were preparing for Valentina strategically. Sparring was based on Valentina, we were emulating Valentina, everything was focused on her," she said. When the news came, her reaction was blunt: "damn that's the fight that I've always wanted."

There was little time to dwell on it. The coaches pivoted and rebuilt the strategy around Cong. "At that moment coaches just pivoted, the entire strategy just shifted, and we right away started preparing," Silva said. Camp for the new opponent started in early September, roughly 30 days out.

No room for Shevchenko

Shevchenko's name keeps coming up, but Silva does not want to talk about someone she is not fighting. "She's not present to me. She's not here, she's no longer in the fight, she hasn't been in the fight," she said. "As soon as the fight was announced that was not against her she became not a factor for me."

Her focus is on Cong. "She is the one that I have to focus on and she's the one who's fighting. She's here and that's all I care about," Silva said.

The main event slot still means a great deal to her. Of seeing her name and face on the UFC 332 poster, she said: "That's a dream becoming true. Absolutely ecstatic."

Silva faces Cong for the women's flyweight title in the main event of UFC 332 on Saturday night.

Source: Cageside Press