Valentina Shevchenko determined to finish Alexa Grasso to avoid repeat of judging controversy
Valentina Shevchenko plans to adhere to one of Dana White’s favorite phrases: Never leave it in the hands of the judges.
This Saturday, Shevchenko faces rival Alexa Grasso in a flyweight championship trilogy bout in the co-main event of UFC 306, with Grasso looking to defend her title a second time. Grasso submitted Shevchenko to become champion at UFC 285, then retained her belt via a split draw at the inaugural Noche UFC in September 2023. The draw call was controversial, as one judge rewarded Grasso with a 10-8 score in the final round that was criticized by fans and fighters.
The former champion was asked whether she’s worried about the judges being swayed by a Mexican Independence Day weekend crowd that will be leaning towards Grasso, but she hopes the bout doesn’t even require scorecards.
“The concern is to finish the fight,” Shevchenko told reporters at UFC 306 media day. “This is No. 1 what’s in my head. When to seize the opportunity, to just do what you have to do, 100 percent, finish the fight.”
Shevchenko went on to elaborate on her personal history of dealing with shaky judging, including a pair of examples from her kickboxing days. She claimed that a biased referee attempted to interfere with her performance at a past Muay Thai competition.
“I’ve been in martial arts for 31 years,” Shevchenko said. “I started when I was five years old, to train, and definitely in all my career I was fighting so many places, so many different fighters, in their home countries against not only against opponents, crowd, but I had a world Muay Thai championship where I had to ‘fight’ against the referee.
“There was a woman referee who was actually doing everything-I was fighting in the final with a Thai girl—she was doing everything to take points from me and to [prevent] techniques. She invented that I cannot do it, but she was trying to do that. No matter what, I won the fight, and when she was raising my arm she said, ‘You are very lucky’ because what she was trying to do it never worked.”
Shevchenko was also asked about recent UFC debutante Wang Cong. The Chinese fighter was spectacular in her first fight for the promotion, needing 62 seconds to flatten veteran Victoria Leonardo.
Wang holds a win over Shevchenko from when they competed in kickboxing in 2015, but Shevchenko claims that their fight was another example of home-cooked scorecards.
“It is really funny because I tell you, when we fought it was in China,” Shevchenko said of the Wang fight. “Back then, in that year, any foreign fighter who fought in China, they would say the same: To [beat] a Chinese opponent, you have to not only knock her out, but make sure that she will be down for at least 30 minutes, because if it will be just five minutes, they will bring her up, ‘Are you ready? Are you ready? Go!’ and in the end they make you lose.
“If we compare judges of that organization in China with what happened in my last fight with Alexa, that judge is an angel compared to the judges in China in that time.”
Given the controversy surrounding the second fight, Shevchenko is newly determined to conclude her trilogy with Grasso by securing a finish. However, she hesitated to say that she needed to make any major changes to her preparation—especially considering that the series is tied, as far as she’s concerned.
“I can’t say that I lost two times, I would say it’s wrong to say it that way because our second fight—and everyone could see that—I won the fight, but they gave a draw. … So what should I do and what should I change?” Shevchenko said. “I don’t know. I really had to focus to perform and to prepare myself the best way that I can and I say I had an amazing training camp. I pushed myself to all limits possible and what is impossible limits, and just ready for the action. It’s going to be an amazing event and an amazing fight.”