Does Valentina Shevchenko train jiu jitsu?

[Eric Silva 2.0]

I can’t find anything listing her as being ranked in bjj, but I see she’s a master of sport in Judo and has trained Sambo as well. Obviously she trains no gi grappling, but I’m guessing she uses her judo/sambo base instead of bjj when rolling.

I think Santos seemed to have found a weakness in her training and did a good job of exploiting it. I remember when Liz Carmouche almost subbed Ronda she went and trained with Rener Gracie afterward to work on her defence. Valentina may want to think about doing something similar.

I would call it more a weakness in her wrestling. She lost all the scrambles and wound up on bottom. She did fine from bottom (very active and didn't get subbed). Contrast this with Maia vs Askren. Askren took down Maia (better wrestler and obviously Maia has the better BJJ) and even if Askren wound up on top Maia swept him or used BJJ to change the position. Santos was also stronger in the clinch but Valentina did ok there too, she had her moments. The weakness I see in Valentina's game is she's 'programmed' for a lack of a better way of saying it. She is better than someone like Santos by far on the feet but once they get close she automatically clinches and looks for the takedown. Santos is the better fighter in this position. She shouldn't be clinching against this type of fighter and she shouldn't be going to the ground. She's much better at range but she doesn't gameplan, she fights the same fight against everybody since she's at least very good everywhere. When she fights with a 'specialist' like Santos, this is the wrong approach IMO.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

She clearly trains grappling but maybe doesn't spend enough time on the bottom when she's training. She's good at surviving but there's room for improvement in her subs, sweeps and get ups.

 

[cyanogen]

I would call it more a weakness in her wrestling. She lost all the scrambles and wound up on bottom. She did fine from bottom (very active and didn't get subbed). Contrast this with Maia vs Askren. Askren took down Maia (better wrestler and obviously Maia has the better BJJ) and even if Askren wound up on top Maia swept him or used BJJ to change the position. Santos was also stronger in the clinch but Valentina did ok there too, she had her moments. The weakness I see in Valentina's game is she's 'programmed' for a lack of a better way of saying it. She is better than someone like Santos by far on the feet but once they get close she automatically clinches and looks for the takedown. Santos is the better fighter in this position. She shouldn't be clinching against this type of fighter and she shouldn't be going to the ground. She's much better at range but she doesn't gameplan, she fights the same fight against everybody since she's at least very good everywhere. When she fights with a 'specialist' like Santos, this is the wrong approach IMO.

This. She should've changed her game plan and stayed on the outside much earlier. Also I think Valentina would benefit greatly from a good strength and conditioning training. She stated that she doesn't cut weight and doesnt do strength and conditioning. She has an athlethic body just from training combat sports so I think she has good genetics to put on muscle. I'm not saying she should cut huge amounts of weight but maybe add like 8-10 lbs of muscle and cut a bit to get more strength in the grappling and pop in her punches. Especially when she wants to fight at 135 in the future.

 

[NoSmilez]

She isn't exposed or bad on the ground. She just met a girl who uses the same entries as her since they came from the same type of background. It's something that she uses often to great success and it doesn't work well against Santos. She can either train to deal with that position or just avoid it totally.

 

[Jackonfire]

She almost got a gogoplata

 

[JustBleed69]

I can’t find anything listing her as being ranked in bjj, but I see she’s a master of sport in Judo and has trained Sambo as well. Obviously she trains no gi grappling, but I’m guessing she uses her judo/sambo base instead of bjj when rolling.

I think Santos seemed to have found a weakness in her training and did a good job of exploiting it. I remember when Liz Carmouche almost subbed Ronda she went and trained with Rener Gracie afterward to work on her defence. Valentina may want to think about doing something similar.

She exclusively trains the head and arm throw, like most girls lol.

Sarcasm for those that can't tell. Val has good jiu jitsu, remember her armbar on Pena? Also has great half guard passing and top side control offense. Santos is just better on the ground.

 

[DOMMA]

 

[jitzmonkey]

Yeah she does.

Don’t know with who but watching her you can tell she knows what she is doing down there

The thing is she is really good at grappling but her grappling just isn’t super elite as many would have you to believe. She is just above average. Still pretty good but not the best

There are many girls at 125 with grappling that is as good or even way better than hers in the division but most of those girls are younger fighters and they are still working they’re way up the ladder.

Most people are just really lazy when it comes to assessing potential threats in her division and write off everyone without properly looking at their skill sets.

When these younger girls make it to the top of the division, Valentina is gonna struggle BIG TIME and eventually lose.

Taila Santos is the first of many

She's 34 years old which historically speaking (for the women's divisions,) makes her a dinosaur.
She's had 87 professional fights in three sports.
That's insane.

So yeah, she's about to get replaced at the top within the next few fights. Although, I wouldn't be too surprised if she made it to 10 title defenses.

 

[StonedLemur]

She almost got a gogoplata

I love how everyone is saying Santos is better on the ground yet Valentina almost pops her with a rare submission lol.

All Santos really had was good control, she literally did nothing to Val.

 

[DOMMA]

I love how everyone is saying Santos is better on the ground yet Valentina almost pops her with a rare submission lol.

All Santos really had was good control, she literally did nothing to Val.

Not to argue needlessly but she did take Shev's back several times and forced her to defend the rear naked choke....she actually got close to sinking in the choke.

 

[drbolony]

I think one of the issues in her training may be her sparring partners. Now put your tin foils hats on, cause I have no proof of this and I'm going off solely what I've seen.

If you pay attention to the countdown shows involving Valentina, you'll start to see a pattern of her preparing with the local amateur level talent of whatever town she's in. This is probably to prevent injury since she knows she's usually way more skilled than her opponents.

If my two assumptions are correct, I believe this strategy finally backfired on Valentina. In an effort to stay healthy, she underestimated her opposition, and almost lost her title due to a lack of world championship level preparation. These should be the most gruelling camps in the sport (championship five rounders) and yet the UFC had to stop Valentina from wanting to fight 5 times a year when they opened the 125 lb division for her.

Of course, this is just a theory.

 

[StonedLemur]

Not to argue needlessly but she did take Shev's back several times and forced her to defend the rear naked choke....she actually got close to sinking in the choke.

But she didn't sir.
I know what you're saying, and you're not totally wrong.

 

[Mentallooser]

She seems to know what she's doing, just fine. She does not seem to work hard to get back to her feet, and doesn't seem super urgent in scrambles. That's all.

 

[JonJonesNeedle]

They know enough defensive BJJ to not get obliterated by BJJ/grappling specialists once it hits the ground, unlike someone like Justin Gaethje.

They also know enough offensive BJJ to sub higher level grapplers, like how Jiri subbed Glover.

 

[BayAreaGuy]

Not sure how good Valentina's BJJ is, but she fought like hell to get out and survive. Valetina wanted to win the fight more and it showed.

 

[lethalshadow]

i think she's pretty well rounded, her jitz is good enough but not top tier.

 

[Pierced7681]

She exclusively trains the head and arm throw, like most girls lol.

Sarcasm for those that can't tell. Val has good jiu jitsu, remember her armbar on Pena? Also has great half guard passing and top side control offense. Santos is just better on the ground.

thats all judo, which she’s a master of sport in. I really don’t think she trains bjj.

 

[JustBleed69]

thats all judo, which she’s a master of sport in. I really don’t think she trains bjj.

It's all grappling. Call it whatever you want, I've seen arm bars and guard passes in both sports. To debate irrelevant details like this is pretty silly, it's like saying "that's not a wrestling whizzer kick that's a judo Uchimata!"

 

[Kal-El]

Of course she trains jiu jitsu. Lol at any other opinion.