Antonina Shevchenko, older sister of UFC Flyweight Champion Valentina Shevchenko, has decided to step away from the sport of MMA.
Shevchenko, 40, is leaving a career that saw her compete on the UFC roster from 2018 to 2022, appearing in eight different bouts for the top MMA promoter. She announced her retirement via social media this week.
“I didn’t have the opportunity to leave my gloves in the octagon by tradition, I didn’t think my fight in UFC in 2022 would be the last,” Shevchenko wrote in an Instagram post this week.
In her early years, the Kyrgyzstani fighter competed in Taekwondo and Muay Thai, finding success in both sports. She won the bronze medal at the 1998 International Taekwon-Do Federation World Championships as a teenager and would go on to earn a silver medal in the competition a few years later, too.
While these competitions would continue to be her main focus throughout the 2000s and 2010s—earning four gold medals at the IFMA World Muaythai Championships from 2003 to 2016—Shevchenko also started to built up a record of MMA victories. She started to focus more closely on the sport of MMA by 2017, building her pro record up to five wins on the regional scene.
Just over a week before younger sister Valentina defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk to begin her first run as UFC Flyweight Champion, Antonina was given a shot to compete on the second season of “Dana White’s Contender Series.”
With a second-round finish win over Jaymee Nievara, Shevchenko was given a UFC contract.
Shevchenko would go on to produce middling results in the flyweight division, attaining just four victories through eight fights. She faced many of the division’s top names, including legendary journeywoman Roxanne Modafferi and former title challenger Katlyn Cerminara.
Her last appearance came back in July 2022, when she snapped a two-fight skid with a split decision over Cortney Casey.
After some time away from the cage, Shevchenko has decided her next career route.
“My heart and my head are completely full with airplanes and sky and it’s hard to express how happy I am that aviation has come into my life!” she said in a social media post. “A professional fighter lives a full [and] exciting life, filled with hard work, awards, travels difficulties, victory celebrations. And it is hard to find another path you love that will be the same intense and fulness, fulled with action, constant learning, hard work and celebration of achievements. Aviation is this treasure for me!”
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