Natalia Silva walked into the Delta Center on Saturday ranked No. 1 at flyweight and No. 4 on the pound-for-pound list, with a belt sitting empty in front of her. Five rounds later she walked out as champion.
Silva beat Wang Cong by unanimous decision in the UFC 332 main event in Salt Lake City, with scorecards of 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46.
Closer than the ranking suggested
Two judges had it by a single round, and the raw numbers explain why. Silva landed 109 significant strikes to Wang’s 98 and scored three takedowns, but Wang led in total strikes 147-133 and pressed hard down the stretch.
The round that decided it was the second, when Silva dropped Wang with a head kick. That was the clearest moment of separation in a fight that otherwise stayed competitive into the fifth.
Silva, 29, out of Timoteo, Brazil, is now 21-5-1 overall and 9-0 in the UFC. That winning streak ties the divisional record held by Valentina Shevchenko. Wang, 34, falls to 10-2 and was ranked No. 8 coming in.
How the belt came to be vacant
Shevchenko vacated the title in September, announced on the 5th, because of injury. The reported issue is ligament damage with a recovery timeline of roughly a year.
Worth noting: the exact nature and severity of that injury has not been officially confirmed by the UFC, so the one-year figure is reported rather than established.
Shevchenko had defended the title against Manon Fiorot and Zhang Weili in 2025. She is 38 and 26-4-1, with a 15-3-1 UFC record, and she is one of the most accomplished champions the women’s divisions have produced.
Silva becomes the fourth undisputed champion in the division’s history, after Nicco Montano, Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso.
What both of them said
Silva kept it simple in the cage. “This is incredible for me. I have worked hard for this moment and now I am the new champion.”
On how the fight felt, she was almost dismissive: “It felt like I was in a sparring session. We were prepared for every move.”
She also made a promise the division needs to hear. “I want to be an active champion. This is my time for people to see who I am as a title holder.”
Shevchenko responded on Sunday with congratulations and a warning in the same breath. “Well deserved Natalia! Congratulations!” she wrote, before adding: “But don’t get too comfortable, keep it warm, I’m coming soon for my belt!”
Who is next
No challenger has been named and no date has been set for a first defense.
Erin Blanchfield is the name being floated most often, and at 8-1 in the UFC she has the resume for it. Grasso has also been discussed, though Silva has already beaten her, which makes that a harder sell.
Shevchenko is expected to be out roughly a year, which puts a rematch somewhere in late 2027 if both stay healthy.
Our take
Silva earned this and the scorecards should not diminish it. She went five rounds with a dangerous No. 8 contender in a vacant title fight, dropped her with a kick, and won on all three cards.
But the quote that matters is the one about being active. This division has spent years waiting on its champion’s health. Silva says she wants to fight. Book her twice in 2027 and the belt means something again.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.