Written by Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Valentina Shevchenko didn’t keep receipts, but she was definitely shocked to see how many professional fighters picked against her in the trilogy with Alexa Grasso at UFC 306.
While she was winning the majority of their first fight until getting caught with a submission late in the fourth round and then by all accounts deserving of a win in the rematch if not for some controversial scoring from the judges, Shevchenko somehow felt like she was being underrated ahead of the third fight.
That’s why she felt the need to put the nail in the coffin when it came to her rivalry with Grasso and what resulted was a one-sided fight from start to finish.
“Surprisingly for me, many UFC fighters, many pro fighters when they had their picks before our third fight they said ‘Grasso … oh Grasso.’ It was kind of one-sided,” Shevchenko told MMA Fighting.
“It was a little bit surprising for me that I would take it from people who don’t know much about martial arts and they just want to see stupid in the striking, like [finding out] who has a stronger chin, a stronger head and it doesn’t involve too much technique, too much fighter IQ, too much of the character of the fighter. I would take it from those people but when pro fighters say that, it was like, oh my God. There’s something wrong with this world. That’s another reason I had to show domination. I had to show I’m superior in every field.”
A big part of the problem that Shevchenko identified was the way her trilogy with Grasso was promoted with the majority of the attention being paid to her opponent.
Shevchenko understood that UFC 306 was billed as a “love letter to Mexico” with the card built around celebrating Mexican Independence Day. Grasso was also the only Mexican champion competing at the event, so shining a brighter spotlight on her made sense.
That said, Shevchenko didn’t appreciate she was somehow forgotten when it came to the highlights from their previous two fights.
“When constantly, over the year, they’re showing the best moments of one fighter and it doesn’t show anything from the other fighter, but the people they don’t watch the full fight,” Shevchenko lamented. “They just see these small clips and they just hear it repeated and repeated. It’s kind of like this is how propaganda works. It’s kind of like [hard] to deal with.
“I knew, for example what had happened in the second fight, for example there is a combination, 10 successful hits from my side and one hit from her side. The media to promote the new champion, to celebrate everything, they get rid of all of my successful combinations and just focus on this one good combination from her. They repeat this over and over. People who didn’t watch the fight, and it’s sad, they don’t watch the fight — they just listen and see all these replays and they start to believe that it’s true.”
To counter that promotional push for Grasso leading into UFC 306, Shevchenko took it upon herself to leave no doubts this time around.
She out-struck Grasso on the feet, took her down eight times and racked up over 16 minutes of control time on the canvas. It was a clean sweep with unanimous 50-45 scorecards across the board as Shevchenko defeated Grasso and reclaimed her UFC flyweight title.
“I knew going into this fight, I cannot let this happen again,” Shevchenko said. “I didn’t have another choice. Don’t let her have these successful combinations, not even one. That’s why I was faster in the striking, she could not respond to my striking and I want to show my skills on the ground game because hearing all people say ‘Valentina you’re a striker, you’re going to be all striking, you don’t have wrestling.’ I don’t know why but they thought she could out-wrestle me. Yeah definitely it’s because of a lucky submission in the first fight when I lost my belt and everyone thought, ‘You are just a striker you don’t have a ground game.’ But I am a martial artist. I am an MMA fighter. I’m a complete fighter. I have to show that you forget, this is my ground game.
“It was no choice for me. They didn’t leave me another one. Just to completely destroy the game plan of Alexa and show that she cannot do anything, not in the striking, not in the wrestling, not in the grappling.”
With Grasso beaten and the UFC title back around her waist, Shevchenko is happy to put the past behind her, which is why she’s not calling out anybody by name when it came to the fighters who picked against her.
She’s happy to let bygones be bygones, although just know, Shevchenko is always watching.
“When you win the fight, you’re already passed it. You never look back,” Shevchenko said. “Every time I try to see the best in people, the good in people because I think this is important.
“Everyone can make errors. If you don’t have a chance to correct these errors for the people, how will it work? It never will work. That’s why there’s no trust for each other. I give people a second chance.”