In a whirlwind of celebrations, Antonina Shevchenko, UFC star and elder sister of reigning flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko, has announced the birth of her first child. The news comes just after Valentina reclaimed her UFC flyweight title in a spectacular performance at UFC 306, marking a significant moment for both sisters.
At UFC 306, Valentina Shevchenko faced Alexa Grasso for their highly anticipated third nout. Early on, Shevchenko dominated with her wrestling, repeatedly taking Grasso to the mat. Grasso, known for her jiu-jitsu, threatened with multiple submission attempts, including arm-bars and an inverse triangle, but Shevchenko consistently escaped and maintained control. By round four, Grasso nearly secured a guillotine, creating the most dramatic moment, but Shevchenko survived. In the final round, both exchanged takedowns, but Shevchenko finished strong, reclaiming her flyweight title by unanimous decision (50-45).
Antonina, 37, who has taken a step back from MMA recently, made the announcement on social media, sharing that her newborn arrived just days before her sister’s major victory. The timing couldn’t be more perfect, as the Shevchenko family now celebrates not only Valentina’s return to the top of the UFC but also the joy of welcoming a new addition.
Both Antonina and Valentina have trained together under the guidance of their long-time coach, Pavel Fedotov, since childhood. The close-knit trio has shared countless experiences, including years of traveling around the world for competitions. Despite Antonina’s more recent low profile in the UFC, she has remained an essential part of Valentina’s support system throughout her career.
In this next picture is an 8 year old Valentina with the 11 year old Antonina and their adult coach Pavel Fedotov. According to Valentina, the two would travel alone with their coach and had moved to Latin America after spending 3 years together on the road – when Valentina was between ages twelve to fifteen and her sister was between ages fifteen to eighteen.
Fedotov was at least 18 in 1988 – and in fact after researching further we were able to confirm that Fedotov was born in 1969 – good 15 years older than his paramour Antonina Shevchenko.
The threesome spent a good deal of time in Latin America – so much so that Shevchenko sisters are Peruvian-Kyrgizstani.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, Valentina Shevchenko painted a damning timeline.
“When I was 15 years old we returned to Russia just my trainer, my sister and I because we love traveling,” Shevchenko explained.
“We were there for like three years and we always competed. I started competing at an early age and when my trainer felt is was too difficult to find opponents in professional fights for me and my sister, he decided that we needed to travel a bit more and experience more.
“And since Latin America is so far from Russia, it was a totally unknown continent in those years because internet wasn’t really a thing and there wasn’t as much information as there is now, people knew very little about how people lived in Latin America.”
And according to an interview they both did with ESPN together – the traveling with the coach started even earlier. According to their account, they would travel with him for three months during the summer break for martial arts competitions every year.
As far back as 2013 – when they were living in Peru – Antonina Shevchenko has been in a relationship but we’re unable to confirm that it was with Fedotov. It’s also quite unclear when the two got married.
In the last couple of years, Antonina visibly took a back seat with Pavel Fedotov accompanying Valentina Shevchenko around the world so much so that that there were rumors of a divorce.
Antonina is 10-4 in MMA, having last competed at UFC in July of 2022 and defeated Courtney Casey via decision.
Shevchenko is 39 currently.
