Valentina Shevchenko

Bullet

Kyrgyzstan

Dominates to regain UFC gold
FlyweightUFC
September 14, 2024
Shevchenko regained the UFC Women's Flyweight Championship on Saturday, defeating Alexa Grasso via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45) at UFC 306 in Las Vegas.
ANALYSIS
As Daniel Cormier correctly pointed out on commentary during the broadcast, this type of domination makes it easy to understand why Shevchenko was a -800 favorite the first time these two women fought back in March 2023. Grasso has improved considerably over the years, but the gap between these two in terms of pure physicality is overwhelming. Not the least bit interested in putting on an entertaining bout, Valentina went to her grappling over and over again, and rightfully so. She landed 8-of-12 takedown attempts, a new career-best mark. She finished with 16:04 worth of control time, or north of three full rounds. If that wasn't enough, Shevchenko also got the better of the very few striking exchanges between the two. It was complete and utter domination from start to finish. The next opponent for Valentina at this point is an open question. The 125-pound female division has almost zero depth to begin with. There have been some rumblings of UFC Women's Strawweight Champion Zhang Weili potentially mulling a move up to flyweight, so perhaps that will materialize down the road. Nothing else stands out.
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Will take on Grasso once again
FlyweightUFC
July 26, 2024
Shevchenko (hand) will face Alexa Grasso in a flyweight bout in UFC Noche at Sphere in Las Vegas on Sep. 14.
ANALYSIS
Grasso vs Shevchenko will be the co-main event of a thrilling event, as the headliner of UFC Noche will be the epic fight between Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight world title. This will be the third contest between these two elite fighters, and considering the most recent event between them ended in a split fight, the stakes will be even higher here. Shevchenko will aim to steal the belt from Grasso while knowing that she lost her world-champion status against the same opponent in March 2023.
Suffers fractured hand
FlyweightUFC
September 19, 2023
Shevchenko announced Tuesday via social media that she suffered a comminuted fracture on her right hand while fighting Alexa Grasso to a split draw at Noche UFC in Las Vegas on Saturday and will require surgery.
ANALYSIS
Shevchenko will be in a cast for a month and will be barred from taking contact for three months. She suffered the injury in the first round of her title rematch against Alexa Grasso, who retained the 125-pound title.
Quest to regain belt ends in draw
FlyweightUFC
September 16, 2023
Shevchenko and champion Alexa Grasso fought to a split draw (47-48, 48-47, 47-47) in their UFC Women's Flyweight title fight on Saturday at Noche UFC in Las Vegas.
ANALYSIS
There's a lot to dissect here. Depending on your point of view, Shevchenko was either lucky to emerge with the draw, or extremely unlikely she didn't regain the title. Rounds 1, 2, and 3 were clear as day, with Valentina winning the odd numbers and Grasso the second frame. Round 4 was closer, but likely deserved to go in favor of the current champion. Everything got screwy in Round 5. Shevchenko was working behind her jab and seemingly in full control, at which point Grasso somehow took her back, flattened her out, and then nearly submitted her. Judge Mike Bell scored the frame 10-8 for Grasso, which is difficult to justify considering she was losing most of the round. Virtually all of Valentina's success came behind her previously mentioned jab, plus her four successful takedowns. The bottom line is that these two seemed destined to fight again.
Rematch with Grasso set
FlyweightUFC
June 22, 2023
Shevchenko will fight Alexa Grasso in a flyweight bout at a UFC event on Sept. 16, Marcel Dorff of Eurosport.nl reports Thursday.
ANALYSIS
Shevchenko is set for a rematch after she shocking dropped the UFC Women's Flyweight title to Grasso back in March. It was her first loss since 2017 to Amanda Nunes, and it snapped a nine-fight win streak for the 35 year-old fighter. She'll look to regain her title six months after she lost it.
Drops title in shocker
FlyweightUFC
March 4, 2023
Shevchenko lost her UFC Women's Flyweight Championship on Saturday, falling to Alexa Grasso via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:34 of Round 4 at UFC 285 in Las Vegas.
ANALYSIS
The gap between Shevchenko and her challengers at 125 pounds has seemingly been getting smaller and smaller in recent years, and Grasso finally got her. While the result is obviously crushing, it's not as if Valentina fought poorly. She seemed to have some trouble with the striking of Grasso, but her wrestling game was on point. She landed 4-of-6 takedown attempts and kept Alexa pinned to the mat for long stretches of both the second and third rounds. Shevchenko was up 29-28 on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage, so, at worst, she would have had a chance to win the fight with a strong fifth round. It wasn't meant to be. Valentina said in her post-fight interview with Joe Rogan that she wants an immediate rematch. Considering she had won nine straight fights entering this one, including seven defenses of her title, she's going to get it. Expect Shevchenko to be favored once again if the rematch does come to be.