Valentina Shevchenko says Halle Berry “has the skills” to be an MMA fighter

Current UFC flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko recently discussed her upcoming title fight with Joanne Calderwood as well as her budding friendship with Halle Berry. The pair recently worked together in Berry’s directorial film debut “Bruised”. Not only does Shevchenko believe in the star’s director abilities, she thinks she has what it takes to make it big in MMA.

The Peruvian champion accomplished another successful title defence last month against Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 247. She is set to take on number three ranked flyweight Joanne Calderwood at UFC 251 in Perth, Australia on June 6th, 2020. The clash will mark Shevchenko’s fourth title defence which she is more than ready for:

“I’m very happy that it’s happening in Australia,” said the Muay Thai prospect to Sports Illustrated.

“We’ve been in Australia last year, for one month, visiting different cities…and Perth became one of my favorites.

“Joanne [Calderwood] is a strong fighter and a well rounded MMA fighter.

“I’m the kind of fighter that’s ready to fight all the time.”

Despite her accomplished MMA career, the 32-year old has been trying her hand at other endeavours. Recently, Shevchenko filmed some scenes for Halle Berry’s new film, Bruised. The film details the life of a disgraced MMA fighter who embarks on a journey to fight again whilst trying to reunite with her six-year-old son. Shevchenko made her acting debut as Berry’s opponent. She also co-trained Berry for the role and believes she has what it takes to become a competitive athlete:

“We trained four hours a day with Halle, training non-stop,” said Shevchenko. “She did everything amazing. For this movie she started training MMA – Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu – she started everything, two or three years ago. And she’s now in such a great shape, that I can say she can be very competition for girls in UFC as well.