Fight Preview
On the day Mexico celebrates its independence, Alexa Grasso is the last line of defense for her fellow citizens. The year, which began with Mexico boasting three UFC champions, has since gone worse. Grasso is fighting Valentina Shevchenko, the biggest export of the women’s flyweight category, on her own to defend her UFC title. Shevchenko vs. Grasso 2 headlines this Saturday night called “Noche UFC.”
Grasso surprised everyone by defeating Shevchenko via fourth-round submission at UFC 285 in March. This was Mexico’s third consecutive month with a UFC champion. Yair Rodriguez won the interim featherweight title in February, while in January,
Grasso gave Shevchenko a good fight, but some questioned the effectiveness of her knockout. Grasso avoided a backfist spin and jumped onto a finishing face crank. At the time, it seemed like a fluke, but it turned out that Grasso and her colleagues had been preparing for just that sequence of events.
Although Shevchenko had a smaller total strike count than Grasso in their first fight, he had twice as many meaningful strikes. Shevchenko’s accuracy was nearly double that of Grasso’s, with 60% of her important strikes connecting compared to 32% for Grasso. The Mexican champion’s volume is eye-popping, but she lacks the strategic insight of her predecessor.
With a 23-4 record, Shevchenko enters Noche UFC as a slight favorite. It’s natural to assume that. After all, Shevchenko’s name is already etched upon the MMA women’s equivalent of the Mount Rushmore. Shevchenko wasn’t just the most successful champion in her weight class; she also set a record for the most successful title defenses by a female fighter.
Despite all three judges scoring Round 1 for Grasso, Shevchenko is confident that she was ahead of Grasso in the minutes leading up to the stoppage and plans to prove it with a knockout in Round 2.
The co-main event on Saturday seems promising. Jack Della Maddalena is emblematic of a new school of promising welterweights. By topping the exciting fan favorite Kevin Holland, Della Maddalena wants to keep up with the likes of Ian Machado Garry and Shavkat Rakhmanov. In their 40 professional victories, they have scored a total of 34 knockouts combined.
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Alexa Grasso vs Valentina Shevchenko 2 Fight Information
- Date: 09/16/2023
- Time: 11:50 PM ET
- Location: T-Mobile Arena.
- How to Watch Grasso vs Shevchenko 2: ESPN+
- Live Stream: BT Sport.com
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