UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko has been working with Halle Berry on her directorial film debut “Bruised”.
Shevchenko last competed inside the Octagon at UFC 247, where she defended her title with a dominant victory over Katlyn Chookagian. For her next fight, she is scheduled to face the Scottish standout and No. 3 ranked women’s flyweight Joanne Calderwood at UFC 251 in Perth, Australia on June 6th, 2020.
In preparations for her upcoming bout at UFC 251, Shevchenko has been training down in Australia, where she has also been getting ready for her acting debut. Shevchenko will make her acting debut in Halle Berry’s “Bruised,” which is also Berry’s debut as a film director. The film is about a washed-up MMA fighter (Berry) and her journey to fight again, whilst trying to reunite with her 6-year-old son.
Shevchenko will play Berry’s opponent in the film and she’s also been training Berry for her role. She talked about the work that has went into the making of this film with Sports Illustrated, revealing how hard Berry has been training for her role:
“We trained four hours a day with Halle, training non-stop” says 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.”
“I don’t know if she will want to be a fighter, but she has the skills and level..and you will see it when the movie is released.”
It’s worth noting that Halle Berry is one of the biggest MMA fans in Hollywood. She has attended multiple UFC events and even trained with UFC fighters like Brian Ortega and Cris Cyborg.
Shevchenko also took the time to comment on her upcoming fight against Calderwood, calling her a “strong” and “well-rounded” fighter:
“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.” she concluded.
Shevchenko is ranked #3 in the female pound-for-pound list, after being overtaken by Weili Zhang following her last win at UFC 248. She previously competed at women’s bantamweight prior to UFC adding a women’s flyweight division. There, Shevchenko challenged Amanda Nunes for her title, losing the fight by split-decision.
Meanwhile, Joanne Calderwood picked up a win in her last Octagon appearance against Andrea “KGB” Lee at UFC 242. Prior to that she lost to Chookagian by UD, snapping her 2-fight winning streak, where she had defeated Ariane Lipski and Kalindra Faria.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 13th March, 2020.
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