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On Saturday night, the UFC celebrated Mexican Independence Day with an exciting 11-fight card in Las Vegas. The event was topped by a flyweight title rematch…
On Saturday night, the UFC celebrated Mexican Independence Day with an exciting 11-fight card in Las Vegas. The event was topped by a flyweight title rematch…
The UFC cover curse has claimed two victims in the span of a week. Despite entering his UFC 293 title fight as a significant 7-to-1 favorite, Israel Adesanya came up short and surrendered his gold to Sean Strickland in a lopsided defeat that stunned fight fans around the world. A week later, flyweight great Valentina […]
The UFC cover curse has claimed two victims in the span of a week.
Despite entering his UFC 293 title fight as a significant 7-to-1 favorite, Israel Adesanya came up short and surrendered his gold to Sean Strickland in a lopsided defeat that stunned fight fans around the world.
A week later, flyweight great Valentina Shevchenko failed to regain the 125-pound title after her rematch with Alexa Grasso at Noche was controversially ruled a split draw.
Both fighters were revealed to be cover athletes for the EA Sports UFC 5 video game scheduled to be released on October, 27. Coincidence? Perhaps, but this is not the first time that a fighter has suffered a massive defeat shortly after seeing their mug slapped on the cover of the popular video game series.
For football fans in North America, all of this probably sounds familiar. The Madden Curse was something that had seemingly plagued players on the gridiron for years. It almost became an annual trend to watch how the latest cover athlete would see their career completely collapse. Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Vince Young, Adrian Peterson, and even NFL legend Brett Favre all found themselves suffering the wrath of the curse at one time or another.
Unfortunately, it appears the curse is not limited to one sport.
Need some additional evidence? Welterweight fan favorite Jorge Masvidal was revealed to be the cover athlete for UFC 4 in 2020. That same year, he suffered a unanimous decision loss to then-titleholder Kamaru Usman. In fact, ‘Gamebred’ would not win another fight and announced his retirement in 2023 following a four-fight losing streak.
In 2018, Irish megastar Conor McGregor was revealed as the cover athlete for UFC 3. The Notorious’ would go on to suffer a fourth-round rear-naked choke defeat at the hands of UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov. McGregor has since lost two of his last three inside the Octagon and broke his leg in the opening round of a trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier in 2021. He has not returned to the cage since.
Ronda Rousey, who appeared in the UFC 3 artwork alongside McGregor, found herself on the wrong side of a 48-second knockout courtesy of Amanda Nunes after being announced as a cover athlete. She retired from the sport shortly after.
With the curse claiming Israel Adeanya’s middleweight title and Valentina Shevchenko’s hopes of becoming a two-time champion this year, is it just a matter of time before featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski, who will also appear on the cover of UFC 5, relinquishes his 145-pound crown?
Off the back of her split draw decision with former champion, Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of Noche UFC last night, pound-for-pound best, Alexa Grasso admits she’s not completely sold on a trilogy fight with the former, claiming she does not…
Off the back of her split draw decision with former champion, Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of Noche UFC last night, pound-for-pound best, Alexa Grasso admits she’s not completely sold on a trilogy fight with the former, claiming she does not want to “stop the division” and chasing contenders.
Headlining a Mexican Independence Day card in Las Vegas last night, Grasso retained her undisputed flyweight title in a controversial split draw (48-47, 47-48, 47-47) decision against Shevchenko – in the pair’s hotly-contested title rematch.
Attempting to close the curtain definitively on her rivalry with the Krgsyzstan striker, Grasso turned in a huge upset victory at UFC 285 back in March, submitting Shevchenko with a third round neck crank submission win in a rallying performance.
And emerging from ‘Sin City’ with her championship in tow last night, Grasso, who has been chased most recently atop the division by the surging pair of both Erin Blanchfield, and Manon Fiorot, remained coy on a trilogy fight with Shevchenko immediately, amid the presence of fresh competition.
“It’s an interesting question,” Alexa Grasso said of a trilogy with Valentina Shevchenko whilst speaking with assembled media after Noche UFC. “I wouldn’t like to stop the division. You know, there’s a lot of girls fighting a lot, you know, to have this opportunity like I did. So I don’t like to stop it – it all depends on the UFC.”
“If they want a trilogy, let’s do this,” Alexa Grasso explained. “I know how it is to be fighting all the time and to wait for your spot, and I wouldn’t like to just stop the division.”
UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby was left just as confused as everyone else by the controversial split draw that allowed Alexa Grasso to keep ahold of the flyweight world title on Saturday night. Headling Noche UFC inside a packed T-Mobile Arena, Alexa Grasso put her 125-pound title on the line for the very first time against […]
UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby was left just as confused as everyone else by the controversial split draw that allowed Alexa Grasso to keep ahold of the flyweight world title on Saturday night.
Headling Noche UFC inside a packed T-Mobile Arena, Alexa Grasso put her 125-pound title on the line for the very first time against the same woman she took the gold from, Valentina Shevchenko. Throughout the 25-minute affair, both women put on an instant classic that could have gone either way. Unfortunately, fight fans were treated to yet another controversial decision as Octagon announcer Bruce Buffer revealed that the bout was ruled a split draw, allowing Grasso to retain her title.
In a clip making the rounds on X (formerly Twitter), UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby can be seen brandishing a look of pure confusion after being informed of the decision by Buffer seconds before he addressed the live crowd.
The split draw ruling came as a result of MMA judge Mike Bell awarding Alexa Grasso a 10-8 in the fifth round of the bout. Everybody on hand, including commentators Jon Anik, Dominick Cruz, and Daniel Cormier, was left completely confused by the decision and the 10-8 score. Had Bell scored the round a much more understandable 10-9 in favor of Grasso, Valentina Shevchenko would have found herself favored on two of the three scorecards, making her a two-time flyweight world champion.
Instead, Alexa Grasso will retain the title and the flyweight division could potentially find itself held up even further as the UFC decides whether or not they are going to complete the trilogy.
Do you want to see Grasso vs. Shevchenko 3 or is it time for the flyweight division to move on and give another fighter in the division a shot at UFC gold?
Retaining her undisputed flyweight championship and receiving massive plaudits for doing so, undisputed division champion, Alexa Grasso manages to remain weight class gold holder come the conclusion of Noche UFC tonight, fighting ex-champion Valentina Shevchenko to a split draw decision in Las Vegas, Nevada. Grasso, who managed to clinch the undisputed flyweight crown from Shevchenko […]
Retaining her undisputed flyweight championship and receiving massive plaudits for doing so, undisputed division champion, Alexa Grasso manages to remain weight class gold holder come the conclusion of Noche UFC tonight, fighting ex-champion Valentina Shevchenko to a split draw decision in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Grasso, who managed to clinch the undisputed flyweight crown from Shevchenko in a massive upset win back in March, handed the veteran her first defeat at the weight class in a rallying third round neck crank submission win.
And tonight, once more leaving ‘Sin City’ with a championship in tow, Guadalajara managed to retain her title on Mexican Independence Day no less, courtesy of a split decision draw at the T-Mobile Arena.
Causing concern for Shevchenko more than once, who again elected to utilize her grappling ability, Grasso would drop the Kyrgyzstan native with a big right hand straight in the second, sending the latter reeling and tumbling backwards.
WHAT. A. FIGHT.
Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko just delivered a classic at #NocheUFC
pic.twitter.com/4XWShPAIN5
— UFC (@ufc) September 17, 2023
IT'S RULED A SPLIT DRAW
— UFC (@ufc) September 17, 2023
Six months ago, it was a co-main squash match. Until it wasn’t. When Mexico’s Alexa Grasso took out long-time flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko…
Six months ago, it was a co-main squash match. Until it wasn’t. When Mexico’s Alexa Grasso took out long-time flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko…
