The highly-anticipated EA Sports UFC 5 has officially revealed this year’s cover athletes. This year, EA has crowned none other than Valentina Shevchenko and Alexander Volkanovski. There will also be a third cover athlete, UFC 4’s star Israel Adesanya, being featured on the Deluxe Edition.
With Shevchenko‘s number-one ranking in the women’s flyweight, Volkanovski being the current UFC Featherweight Champion, and Adesanya being the current two-time UFC Middleweight champion, few people make better choices for this year’s game.
Valentina Shevchenko was born in Kyrgyzstan and fought for both Kyrgyzstan and Peru. She is a force to be reckoned with in women’s mixed martial arts. As of August 2023, she not only leads the flyweight division but is also a strong number three in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings for women. As the past UFC Women’s Flyweight Champion, she became a role model for a whole generation of fighters because of how good she was at Muay Thai.
Alexander Volkanovski is currently the UFC Featherweight Champion. He also ranks number two in UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings. Alexander Volkanovski is an Australian mixed martial artist who was the Australian Fighting Championship (AFC) Featherweight Champion and was a professional boxer.
Israel Adesanya is a Nigerian and New Zealand mixed martial artist, kickboxer and boxer. He carries multiple titles across all three sports, including King in the Ring, and twice winning the Super 8 Cruiserweight championship.
This is the first year that EA Sports UFC will not be featuring photos of the athletes on the cover. This time around, their in-game avatars will be featured instead.
EA Sports UFC titles are moving leaps and bounds ahead of other sports titles, even in their own catalog. Though we saw women introduced in titles like NHL, NBA, PGA Tour, and FC (formally FIFA), they have very rarely made the cover, and when they do, it is often shared with a male athlete. This is only the fifth official EA Sports UFC title and the second to feature a woman on the cover.
Several covers in the franchise have had a shared spotlight, including Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor, but often share a cover with two male athletes as well. This year, the cover will be shared again by Valentina Shevchenko and Alexander Volkanovski!
Fighters with big names like Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya, and Amanda Nunes are also thought to impact UFC 5. Yet, it seems like Shevchenko and Volkanovski’s presence is a nod not only to their skills but also to how essential they are in the UFC.
UFC 5 is shaping up to be an exciting release for the series, and the new cover athlete shows not only how the sport is changing with the times but also how the face of the sport is changing. Without an official launch date, fall is coming, and fans shouldn’t have to wait long to try it out.
