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Valentina Shevchenko wants to run things back with Alexa Grasso, but she’s not sure yet if she’ll be able.
On Saturday, Shevchenko fell short in her bid to reclaim the flyweight title, fighting to a split draw with Grasso in the main event of Noche UFC, forcing Shevchenko to once again leave a fight against Grasso empty handed. It was a controversial decision, particularly the scoring of judge Mike Bell, who awarded Grasso a 10-8 in the fifth round.
Shevchenko feels she got the short end of the stick, particularly given that she broke her thumb in the first round.
“I was thinking it was 3-2, my side. I was thinking it was going to be a split decision,” Shevchenko told The MMA Hour. “It was a war. It was a grand fight. It was an amazing fight. It was, in my opinion, Fight of the Night. I’m not saying it was super easy or something. I fought there, I left everything in the octagon. I know people say if you want your victory you can’t leave it to the judges. You can say that, but no one has the right to say that if they didn’t try to fight in the octagon at the level we are fighting.
“It’s not that easy to do knockout, submission, or whatever, with your finger broken and with an opponent who is in the top level. I know I did do everything and it was enough to secure three rounds of victory in my side.
“I injured my hand in the first round. … I hit with a cross and it landed on the side and affected my thumb. I could feel it right away … in the first round. That was the reason I could not finish my submission. This affected me to pull my grip. I had the position when I was on her back but I couldn’t close my arm because of the finger. But again, I’m not here trying to find excuses why that happened. If I would try to find excuses, I would say, ‘Oh my God, I broke my finger, I can’t continue the fight.’ But no, I fought four more rounds with a broken finger.”
Given the controversial and indecisive ending to the fight, talk of a trilogy between the two fighters started almost immediately. Grasso, for her part, was noncommittal about a third fight, saying that if the UFC wanted it she would take it, but that she also wants to allow other contenders their shot at the belt. Shevchenko agrees, saying that she’s open to the trilogy but first needs to figure out the extent of her injury — and that she also doesn’t want to hold anyone else up.
“It’s hard for me to say exactly what I think is going to be next,” Shevchenko said. “Right now, I’m thinking about taking the [scans] I need for my hand, make sure that I will be healed for the next fight, and I don’t want to hold anyone in the division from moving forward as well. That’s why when I’m ready to fight, I will fight anyone. If people want to see the trilogy, I’m here and I think it’s deserved as well. If they want to see me move up [in weight], I’m moving up. If they want to see something else, I want to fight anyone, because this is my mindset. I’m not choosing my opponent, I just go and fight.”
“It’s hard to say whatever right now,” Shevchenko continued. “I understand I don’t know what kind of injury I have in my hand and I don’t know how long it’s going to take to heal it. I only don’t want no one to sit without the fight and just wait. I know the girls want to fight, they need to fight, because this is our fighter life. This is our career, this is how we get money at the end. This is the only thing I’m saying. I don’t want to say anything in a rush, without the circumstances, how soon I can get back. If I was healthy 100 percent, I would be like, yes, let’s go, trilogy in three months, I’m ready. But I cannot say [that] right now because I don’t know the situation of my health, of my hand.”
Fortunately for Shevchenko, Grasso does not appear to be in a rush to get back into the cage, saying she just fought and would like to at least take some time off. There are also rumors that the UFC is planning to return to Mexico for the first time since COVID-19 sometime next year, which could be an ideal place for a trilogy fight to happen. Unless, of course, if you’re Shevchenko, who believes that since the rematch happened on Mexican Independence Day, she deserves some kind of consideration for the trilogy bout.
“I think it would be right to have next event in Kyrgyzstan on Independence Day of Kyrgyzstan [August 31],” Shevchenko said. “It’s going to be very smart, because it has to be equal. We cannot do Mexican Independence Day twice. I think all the people in Kyrgyzstan, all the government in Kyrgyzstan, they will do everything possible to make it happen. That’s why I think the UFC will want to do that. They will find a way to do that.
“In our fight, there were people from the government who flew in from Kyrgyzstan to the United States to watch me fight, so it speaks a lot about that. … I think it’s going to be fair. Independence Day of Kyrgyzstan, in Kyrgyzstan, I think it’s the right time to do that.”
The UFC has never held an event in Kyrgyzstan so it seems unlikely that Shevchenko will get her wish. A trilogy bout next year in Las Vegas, perhaps at UFC 300, seems much more feasible — and ultimately, that’s probably OK for Shevchenko, who says that she’s nowhere close to retirement and that the most important thing for her, the reason she’s still fighting, is to continue building her legacy and setting an example for the next generations.
“You could see in the fight, when the person is done, it’s kind of slowing, doesn’t want to fight, doesn’t have desire. But you could see in that fight the full eyes of desire, and power, and speed, and everything,” Shevchenko said. “If you could see in my history of fighting, I was always fighting a few generation of fighters. The female fighters who I fought with, some of them already have babies, families, forgot about fighting, don’t even remember that they are fighters.
“Some of them just recently are finishing their careers, but I’m still here, I’m still on top. But now the younger generation is coming and I’m still showing that I am the best, I can fight like no one. This is what’s important for me. To continue to be the same, the same person that I am, to build my legacy and build the confidence in other girls who are starting their journey in martial arts.”
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