After what happened at last year’s Noche UFC card, Valentina Shevchenko made it perfectly clear that she wanted a trilogy fight with Alexa Grasso on neutral ground.
The current UFC flyweight champion failed to reclaim her title in the second fight with Grasso after the bout was controversially scored as a draw.
Shevchenko had no problem stating that the result was an outcome of their fight taking place on a card that was set to celebrate Mexican Independence Day.
Though she won the belt back at UFC 306 with a dominant performance on the same exact weekend one calendar year later, the “Bullet” says that she was forced to change up her approach as a result of the location of the fight.
Valentina Shevchenko Says That She Adapted Her Game Plan To Counter Biased Judging At UFC 306
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Shevchenko was asked whether the fight taking place at Noche UFC once again made her nervous about the way that the judges would score the fight.
The champ went on to reveal that the setting of UFC 306 at the Sphere made her adjust her game plan in order to try and counter any potentially biased scoring.
“I knew exactly what had happened last time and now even being the bigger event, it’s like all about the culture, all about celebrating the Mexican culture and having the Mexican champion on the card, of course definitely everyone want to celebrate. Definitely I know exactly what is like how much pressure on my shoulders and I just say they don’t leave me any other choice.”
Shevchenko received some criticism for putting on a boring display in the co-main event where the majority of the fight saw her controlling Grasso with her wrestling.
She revealed that this was somewhat intentional because if the judges were going to value Grasso’s success higher than hers, her best route to victory was to shut her opponent down entirely.
“I knew going into this fight that I cannot let this happen again. I didn’t have another choice. Don’t let her have this successful combination, not even one. That’s why it was like pure, I was faster in the striking so she could not respond on my striking and definitely I wanted to show them my skills in the ground game.
“It was like no choice for me, they didn’t leave me another one. Just only 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.”
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