Valentina Shevchenko hands Holly Holm another loss at UFC Chicago

 

Valentina Shevchenko stunned Holly Holm on Saturday night at UFC Chicago, unanimously outpointing the former UFC champion.
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Valentina Shevchenko stunned Holly Holm on Saturday night at UFC Chicago, unanimously outpointing the former UFC champion.

Fighting for the first fight since losing the belt to Miesha Tate at UFC 196, Holm had losing scores of 49-46 from the judges.

Her
stunning knockout of then-champ Ronda Rousey in Australia at UFC 193
catapulted Holm (10-2) into the spotlight of mixed martial arts, but she
followed with the back-to-back losses.

Shevchenko (13-2) put
herself in the mix to contend for the women\’s bantamweight title at 135
pounds that is held by Amanda Nunes, who she lost to in March at UFC
196.

Holm knocked Shevchenko to the mat with a quick hook early
in the first round as Shevchenko quickly got back to her feet.
Shevchenko had a takedown late in the round.

In the third round,
after Shevchenko got in a few jabs, Shevchenko caught Holm\’s leg on a
kick attempt and took her down. Shevchenko had another takedown and kept
Holm (10-2) on the mat for the rest of the round as she landed punches.

Shevchenko may get another shot at Nunes, who dismantled Tate for the belt at UFC 200.

 

In the co-main event, Edson Barboza won in a unanimous decision over Gilbert Melendez in a lightweight fight.

Barboza
(18-4) began to take control late in the second round. Melendez
attempted a kick, but Barboza caught Melendez\’s leg and took him down.
Barboza had Melendez (22-6) pinned to ground as he landed a series of
punches, but Melendez was saved by the bell.

Barboza scored with
the judges on a number of kicks to Melendez\’s left knee in the third
round as the judges scored the fight 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 in favor of
Barboza.

Barboza backed up his last win against former lightweight champ Anthony Pettis

Melendez,
who hasn\’t fought since June 13, 2015, losing a split decision to
now-champ Eddie Alvarez, has lost his last three fights.

Felice
Herrig (11-6), born in Chicago, submitted Kailin Curran (4-3) in the
strawweight division with a rear-naked choke at 1:59 in the first round.
Herrig, bounced back from an April 2015 loss to Paige VanZant.

A
welterweight fight between Hector Urbna and George Sullivan was
scrapped after Sullivan voluntarily disclosed information to the U.S.
Anti-Doping Agency. According to a UFC release, out of caution, Sullivan
was removed from the fight as the USADA conducts an investigation into
the matter.

Earlier in the card, Eddie Wineland (22-11-1)
dropped Frakie Saenz (11-4) in a bantamweight fight with a right counter
punch in the third round to win by technical knockout.

Darren
Elkins (22-5), fighting 50 miles from his hometown of Portage, Indiana,
overcame an illegal knee from Godofredo Pepey (13-4) to win in unanimous
decision at 145 pounds.

In one of the more exciting fights of
the card, Jason Knight won in a split decision over Jim Alers in a
bloody featherweight fight that featured three rounds of the two
exchanging takedowns and blows to the face.

Knight (17-2), who
was verbally taunting Alers during the fight, withstood a right uppercut
from Alers with 45 seconds left in the third round to go on his way to
win his first career UFC fight. The decision was not popular with some
in the crowd as boos rang out as ring announcer Bruce Buffer read the
results.