Shevchenko vacates flyweight title through injury as Silva meets Wang Cong at UFC 332

The UFC women's flyweight division is without a champion. During the broadcast of its Paris card on Saturday 5 September, the promotion announced that Valentina Shevchenko had informed it she would be unable to compete for at least a year because of injury. Her title has been vacated as a result.

The new champion will be crowned on 3 October at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, where Natalia Silva and Wang Cong headline UFC 332. The promotion has framed this as a fight for the undisputed vacant belt rather than an interim title.

No details of the injury have been released. The UFC has not said when it happened or what the recovery involves beyond the rough one-year estimate. Shevchenko is 38 and last fought in November of last year.

Silva on a 14-fight run

Silva arrives unbeaten for close to eight years. Her winning streak of 14 fights dates back to December 2017 and she has yet to lose inside the UFC. Three former champions sit on that list: Jéssica Andrade, Alexa Grasso and Rose Namajunas.

The Brazilian had been ranked in the division's top three and was widely expected to be Shevchenko's next challenger. Instead she gets her title shot against an opponent who reached the main event on a much shorter run.

Wang Cong: 10-1 with four straight

Wang Cong holds a 10-1 record and has won four consecutive UFC bouts. The most recent came by decision over Tracy Cortez at UFC 329 in July. Her only career defeat was a submission loss to Gabriella Fernandes in 2024.

She becomes one of a small handful of Chinese fighters to contest a UFC title, and had been ranked sixth in the division heading into the announcement.

Shevchenko waits

Reporting around the announcement indicates Shevchenko will receive a title fight once she is medically cleared. No timeframe has been attached to that, and nothing has been said about whether an interim belt would come into play should her absence stretch further. Until she is booked, it remains a stated intention rather than a signed contest.

Shevchenko regained the belt in 2024 with a unanimous decision over Grasso, then defended it twice, against Manon Fiorot and Zhang Weili.

The rest of the card

Alongside the main event, a bantamweight bout between Deiveson Figueiredo and Payton Talbott has been confirmed for UFC 332. Several other fights have been announced, but published line-ups differ between outlets, so the full card is not yet settled. The main card airs on CBS and Paramount+ at 8pm ET.

For the UFC this is the second title fight inside a year to be reshaped by a champion's injury, and the first time the flyweight belt has changed hands outside the cage since Shevchenko took possession of it.