Tag: Alexa Grasso

Valentina Shevchenko Says Judges Influenced Noche UFC 306 Game Plan

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 […]

Continue Reading Valentina Shevchenko Says Judges Influenced Noche UFC 306 Game Plan at MMA News.

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.”

Read also: Jon Anik Outlines ‘Silver Lining’ For The UFC After Sean O’Malley’s Title Loss

Continue Reading Valentina Shevchenko Says Judges Influenced Noche UFC 306 Game Plan at MMA News.

UFC Rankings Report: Dvalishvili Lands Above Aspinall In P4P Top 10, Muhammad Jumps Du Plessis

As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away. And in the aftermath of UFC 306 (Noche UFC), MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings. Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Merab Dvalishvili closed out Saturday’s event with his long-awaited championship […]

Continue Reading UFC Rankings Report: Dvalishvili Lands Above Aspinall In P4P Top 10, Muhammad Jumps Du Plessis at MMA News.

As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away.

And in the aftermath of UFC 306 (Noche UFC), MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings.

Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Merab Dvalishvili closed out Saturday’s event with his long-awaited championship crowning. As a result, the bantamweight kingpin has debuted on the P4P list at #7, one position above interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall. Further up, welterweight champ Belal Muhammad (#5) has jumped his middleweight counterpart Dricus Du Plessis (#6).

The defeated O’Malley, meanwhile, has slid seven positions to #13. Dvalishvili’s friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling is out of the top 15 entirely following the Georgian’s arrival.

Women’s Pound-for-Pound: Valentina Shevchenko is once again the flyweight queen, and she’s also back on the P4P mountaintop. “Bullet” has climbed two places back to top spot, while previous #1 Alexa Grasso has fallen to #3 following her lopsided loss to Shevchenko in their trilogy.

Women’s Strawweight: No changes.

Women’s Flyweight: The sole change at 125 pounds has seen Grasso slip back to top contender status, swapping positions with now-champ Shevchenko.

Women’s Bantamweight: Norma Dumont secured the biggest win of her career in the Noche UFC featured prelim, outpointing a badly damaged Irene Aldana. The result has seen the Brazilian ascend by three positions to #5 at 135 pounds. The defeated Mexican, on the other hand, is down just one spot to #6.

Flyweight: In the male 125-pound weight class, Asu Almabayev has moved up one place to share #14 with the recently retired Matt Schnell.

Bantamweight: Like in the women’s flyweight division, the only change in the men’s 135-pound division came with the switch on the throne. With Dvalishvili now occupying it, O’Malley is the #1-ranked bantamweight.

Featherweight: The biggest climber this week is the charging Diego Lopes, who got the better of former two-time title challenger and longtime top-five contender Brian Ortega on Saturday night. The Mexico-residing Brazilian has risen by a mammoth 10 positions to #3. “T-City,” meanwhile, has been relegated to #5.

With Movsar Evloev staying put at #6, the changes have led to a two-place fall to #7 for Arnold Allen.

Lightweight: No changes.

Welterweight: No changes.

Middleweight: No changes.

Light Heavyweight: No changes.

Heavyweight: No changes.

You can view the full updated UFC rankings here.

Continue Reading UFC Rankings Report: Dvalishvili Lands Above Aspinall In P4P Top 10, Muhammad Jumps Du Plessis at MMA News.

UFC Rankings Report: Dvalishvili Lands Above Aspinall In P4P Top 10, Muhammad Jumps Du Plessis

As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away. And in the aftermath of UFC 306 (Noche UFC), MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings. Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Merab Dvalishvili closed out Saturday’s event with his long-awaited championship […]

Continue Reading UFC Rankings Report: Dvalishvili Lands Above Aspinall In P4P Top 10, Muhammad Jumps Du Plessis at MMA News.

As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away.

And in the aftermath of UFC 306 (Noche UFC), MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings.

Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Merab Dvalishvili closed out Saturday’s event with his long-awaited championship crowning. As a result, the bantamweight kingpin has debuted on the P4P list at #7, one position above interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall. Further up, welterweight champ Belal Muhammad (#5) has jumped his middleweight counterpart Dricus Du Plessis (#6).

The defeated O’Malley, meanwhile, has slid seven positions to #13. Dvalishvili’s friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling is out of the top 15 entirely following the Georgian’s arrival.

Women’s Pound-for-Pound: Valentina Shevchenko is once again the flyweight queen, and she’s also back on the P4P mountaintop. “Bullet” has climbed two places back to top spot, while previous #1 Alexa Grasso has fallen to #3 following her lopsided loss to Shevchenko in their trilogy.

Women’s Strawweight: No changes.

Women’s Flyweight: The sole change at 125 pounds has seen Grasso slip back to top contender status, swapping positions with now-champ Shevchenko.

Women’s Bantamweight: Norma Dumont secured the biggest win of her career in the Noche UFC featured prelim, outpointing a badly damaged Irene Aldana. The result has seen the Brazilian ascend by three positions to #5 at 135 pounds. The defeated Mexican, on the other hand, is down just one spot to #6.

Flyweight: In the male 125-pound weight class, Asu Almabayev has moved up one place to share #14 with the recently retired Matt Schnell.

Bantamweight: Like in the women’s flyweight division, the only change in the men’s 135-pound division came with the switch on the throne. With Dvalishvili now occupying it, O’Malley is the #1-ranked bantamweight.

Featherweight: The biggest climber this week is the charging Diego Lopes, who got the better of former two-time title challenger and longtime top-five contender Brian Ortega on Saturday night. The Mexico-residing Brazilian has risen by a mammoth 10 positions to #3. “T-City,” meanwhile, has been relegated to #5.

With Movsar Evloev staying put at #6, the changes have led to a two-place fall to #7 for Arnold Allen.

Lightweight: No changes.

Welterweight: No changes.

Middleweight: No changes.

Light Heavyweight: No changes.

Heavyweight: No changes.

You can view the full updated UFC rankings here.

Continue Reading UFC Rankings Report: Dvalishvili Lands Above Aspinall In P4P Top 10, Muhammad Jumps Du Plessis at MMA News.

Robert Whittaker: Alexa Grasso Didn’t Want To Be In There Against Valentina Shevchenko

Valentina Shevchenko closed out her trilogy with Alexa Grasso in dominant fashion in the co-main event of UFC 306. The former champion was able to reclaim the title after a controversial rematch that ended in a draw, following their first encounter where she was shockingly submitted. Though the second fight between them was very close, […]

Continue Reading Robert Whittaker: Alexa Grasso Didn’t Want To Be In There Against Valentina Shevchenko at MMA News.

Valentina Shevchenko closed out her trilogy with Alexa Grasso in dominant fashion in the co-main event of UFC 306.

The former champion was able to reclaim the title after a controversial rematch that ended in a draw, following their first encounter where she was shockingly submitted.

Though the second fight between them was very close, no one has been clamouring to see a fourth contest between them after how one-sided the trilogy was, this past weekend.

The takedowns from Shevchenko totally shut down Grasso’s boxing skills and aside from a few submission attempts, she wasn’t able to stop the challenger’s takedowns which led to her being stuck on the floor for the majority of the duration.

Robert Whittaker Questions How The Match-Up Was Ever Close After Watching UFC 306

On a recent episode of his MMArcade Podcast, former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker gave his analysis of the co-main event.

He pointed to the fact that there was a huge gap between them this time around compared to their prior encounter at last year’s Noche UFC.

Even though Grasso was able to secure one of the biggest upsets in UFC history when she submitted Shevchenko at UFC 285, she was down on the scorecards at the time.

Having seen how easy the “Bullet” made the fight look at points inside the Sphere, Whittaker questioned how this match-up was ever competitive.

“They’ve fought three times now. I don’t know how Grasso won the first, well I do, she was losing until she submitted Shevchenko right? And then I don’t know how the second one was a draw because this third fight like Grasso did nothing. I don’t want to come down hard on her okay because maybe she was just shut down that heavy but it was a draw last fight.

“I don’t know, it didn’t look like Grasso wanted to be in that fight. It looked like a significant level difference this time around.”

Read also: Sean O’Malley’s Coach Reveals What He Said To Enrage Merab Dvalishvili At Noche UFC 306

Continue Reading Robert Whittaker: Alexa Grasso Didn’t Want To Be In There Against Valentina Shevchenko at MMA News.

‘Not The Funnest Fight’ – Daniel Cormier Compares UFC 306 Co-Main Event To Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili

The first three fights on the UFC 306 main card had everyone hyped up. Ronaldo Rodriguez, Esteban Ribovics, and Diego Lopes secured decision wins but the back-and-forth action compensated for the lack of finishes. There was a mixed reaction towards the co-main and main event of the night in MMA circles, though. Alexa Grasso was […]

Continue Reading ‘Not The Funnest Fight’ – Daniel Cormier Compares UFC 306 Co-Main Event To Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili at MMA News.

The first three fights on the UFC 306 main card had everyone hyped up. Ronaldo Rodriguez, Esteban Ribovics, and Diego Lopes secured decision wins but the back-and-forth action compensated for the lack of finishes.

There was a mixed reaction towards the co-main and main event of the night in MMA circles, though. Alexa Grasso was completely dominated by Valentina Shevchenko in their trilogy after the exciting first two fights. Similarly, Sean O’Malley had a few good moments but had no answer for Merab Dvalishvili’s wrestling and pace.

Daniel Cormier compared the two title fights at UFC 306 and explained what made the main event relatively better than the co-main…

Daniel Cormier Claims Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili Was More Exciting Than Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko Despite Similar Outcome

Cormier recently admitted Grasso vs. Shevchenko to be lackluster while reacting to UFC 306 on his YouTube channel. He hesitated but called “Bullet” the better fighter between the two.

Although Dvalishvili had a similar game plan against O’Malley, the former UFC double champ credited “Suga” for maintaining threats throughout the fight. On the flip side, Grasso spent much of the fight trying to get back on her feet and gathering failed submission attempts.

“It was not the funniest fight. It felt like the Merab fight was a little more intriguing because of the danger that Sean O’Malley always seemed to possess. But, Alexa just got dominated and she’s going to have to figure that out. She seemed to spend a lot of time trying to fight off of her back because she knew she would get taken down. But all that did was allow for time to run and when time runs and you’re on your back, you’re losing. Sure, she had some good submission attempts but that’s not enough.”

“The Machine” beat O’Malley via decision comfortably but the latter landed several good shots and won the last round with constant body shots. Fans could sense a finish whenever the fight went to the feet.

The former women’s UFC flyweight champion, according to Cormier, could not gain Shevchenko’s respect in striking or on the ground. He expected Grasso to show more urgency and hopes that she fixes these holes in her game going forward.

Continue Reading ‘Not The Funnest Fight’ – Daniel Cormier Compares UFC 306 Co-Main Event To Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili at MMA News.