The Joe Rogan ExperienceJRE MMA Show #115 with Valentina Schevchenko
Joe Rogan and Valentina Shevchenko on valentina Shevchenko Explains How World Travel Forged a Perfect Fighter.
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Valentina Shevchenko and Joe Rogan, JRE MMA Show #115 with Valentina Schevchenko explores valentina Shevchenko Explains How World Travel Forged a Perfect Fighter Valentina Shevchenko discusses her lifelong martial arts journey from Kyrgyzstan to becoming a dominant UFC champion, emphasizing the importance of a universal, well‑rounded fighting style. She explains how travel, language learning, shooting sports, and dance all feed into her mentality, balance, and performance as a fighter. Central to her success is her decades‑long partnership with coach Pavel and a training philosophy that rejects most ‘modern’ conditioning in favor of hard, long, skill‑focused sessions. She also shares her views on weight cutting, coaching, gun culture, kids and martial arts, and a possible future super‑fight with Amanda Nunes.
Valentina Shevchenko Explains How World Travel Forged a Perfect Fighter
Valentina Shevchenko discusses her lifelong martial arts journey from Kyrgyzstan to becoming a dominant UFC champion, emphasizing the importance of a universal, well‑rounded fighting style. She explains how travel, language learning, shooting sports, and dance all feed into her mentality, balance, and performance as a fighter. Central to her success is her decades‑long partnership with coach Pavel and a training philosophy that rejects most ‘modern’ conditioning in favor of hard, long, skill‑focused sessions. She also shares her views on weight cutting, coaching, gun culture, kids and martial arts, and a possible future super‑fight with Amanda Nunes.
Key Takeaways
Develop yourself as a universal fighter, not a specialist.
Shevchenko’s coach always pushed her into many rule sets (Taekwondo, Muay Thai, MMA, Sanda, etc. ...
A great coach who understands you is more important than a perfect gym.
Valentina follows Pavel wherever he goes because he’s been with her since age five and tailors technique to each athlete’s body and style instead of forcing one rigid system on everyone; she sees this as the main reason talent either flourishes or gets wasted.
Travel and learning outside the gym elevate performance inside the gym.
Living in Russia, Peru, and Thailand, speaking four languages, and deeply engaging with local cultures have expanded her perspective and resilience; she believes non‑fight experiences cross‑pollinate skills, sharpen self‑knowledge, and ultimately improve her fighting.
Train hard with purpose, not by copying trendy strength and conditioning.
She largely avoids weights, machines, running, and heart‑rate gadgets, instead doing one long, intense, skill‑heavy session a day with live partners and full‑power sparring (with protection). ...
Protect yourself in sparring so you can arrive fresh on fight night.
She criticizes hard, bare‑bones sparring without gear, noting that repeated damage in camp leaves fighters ‘like a balloon’ on fight night; her solution is full‑power but highly protected sparring (big gloves, headgear, pads) and careful energy management.
Balance intense ambition with humility and constant education.
Despite being a dominant champion, she deliberately stays grounded—treating the gym like a temple, refusing to underestimate opponents, and continuously learning (languages, shooting, dance). ...
Introduce kids to martial arts and responsible gun culture to reduce harm, not increase it.
She argues that teaching children martial arts channels their energy, builds confidence, and reduces bullying, while early gun safety education fosters respect and responsibility. ...
Notable Quotes
“To become a professional in something might take five years, so why not spend more years to learn something else and add more knowledge into yourself?”
— Valentina Shevchenko
“My coach always wanted to create universal fighters who don’t have any problems in any position.”
— Valentina Shevchenko
“In training you have to be the most simple person you can be, because it’s a real fight. If you think too much about yourself, it will break you.”
— Valentina Shevchenko
“I don’t like to choose my opponents. All my life it was: ‘Valentina, will you fight her?’ Yes.”
— Valentina Shevchenko
“For me, the gym is like my temple. If I respect that place, it will keep me safer from injuries.”
— Valentina Shevchenko
Questions Answered in This Episode
How would Valentina’s career and style have differed if she’d grown up with today’s UFC infrastructure and visibility instead of having to ‘go around the world’ first?
Valentina Shevchenko discusses her lifelong martial arts journey from Kyrgyzstan to becoming a dominant UFC champion, emphasizing the importance of a universal, well‑rounded fighting style. ...
Could her low‑tech, intuition‑based training approach (no running, no gadgets, minimal weights) be successfully applied to other high‑level fighters, or is it uniquely suited to her?
What risks and rewards would a third fight with Amanda Nunes at 135 pounds present, given Valentina’s refusal to add significant muscle mass?
If schools widely adopted both martial arts and gun‑safety education, how might that transform youth violence, bullying, and attitudes toward self‑defense?
Where is the line between healthy humility and potentially limiting your own ambition in a sport that rewards self‑promotion and big personalities?
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
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