Natalia Silva Is Flyweight Champ — Is Shevchenko Next or Next in Line?

There's a new women's flyweight queen. Natalia Silva walked out of UFC 332 with the 125-pound belt after a clear-cut decision over Wang Cong in the main event, and she's already made her intentions plain: she wants to defend it often. The obvious first question is whether former champ Valentina Shevchenko slots in as the opening challenger, or whether the timeline forces someone else into the picture.

Shevchenko's availability is the variable here. If "The Bullet" is ready, she's the marquee name and the easiest sell. If she isn't, Silva's stated preference for staying active opens the door for a different contender to jump the queue — exactly the kind of scenario a new champion with momentum tends to welcome rather than wait around for.

Wang, for her part, isn't letting the result stand quietly. In her first statement after the fight, she said an early eye poke altered the bout. That's not a protest that changes the decision, but it's the kind of asterisk that keeps a rematch conversation warm if the rankings shuffle her way again.

Talbott's Statement Win

The co-main delivered the night's loudest result. Payton Talbott stopped Deiveson Figueiredo in the first round — and that's no small scalp. Figueiredo came in ranked #9 at bantamweight with a 25-8-1 record and nine knockouts to go with nine submissions, a former flyweight champ with real pedigree. Getting rid of him inside a round moves Talbott up the ladder fast, and he's already been asked about a possible meeting with Sean O'Malley.

Esteban Ribovics kept the finish parade going at lightweight, stopping Bobby "King" Green in the first round to push his record to 17-3 with nine KOs and five submissions. Green, true to form, argued the stoppage came too soon. Ribovics also offered a wrinkle on his prep, claiming the air conditioning messed with his weight cut — a minor footnote next to a clean first-round finish.

Elsewhere on the card, Roberto Soldic and Roman Kopylov banked wins that keep their respective divisions interesting, while the heavyweight prospect chatter rolls on. Anthony Wint, a perfect 9-0 with six KOs, understands why he keeps getting mentioned alongside fellow unbeatens Sean Sharaf and Josh Hokit. Hokit sits at #4 and 10-0, with a date against Ciryl Gane already booked for UFC 334 — proof of how quickly that logjam of undefeated big men is sorting itself out.

So the matchmaking board is busy. The headline act is Silva versus whoever the division can produce quickest, with Shevchenko the preferred answer if the calendar cooperates. Below her, Talbott and Ribovics just made themselves impossible to ignore.