Alexa Grasso disputes allegations of illegal knees against Valentina Shevchenko at Noche UFC

Alexa Grasso is still your UFC women’s flyweight champion. Last night (Sat. September 16, 2023) Grasso put her 125-pound crown up for grabs against Valentina Shevchenko. It was a rematch from their initial bout back in March in which Grasso submitted “The Bullet” to capture her first career title.

Headlining Noche UFC last night, Grasso and Shevchenko put on an excellent contest, going all five rounds, and leaving the scoring to the judges. The decision that returned resulted in a Split Draw, and Grasso retaining the championship as a result.

Speaking in the post-fight press conference, Grasso was asked about the judging of the contest, especially a 10-8 round that was scored in her favor in the fifth round. Grasso noted she believes she clearly won three of the five rounds and is happy with her performance.

“I’m happy with my performance,” Grasso said. “ For me it was 3-2. The second, fourth, and fifth were for me. But I’m not the judge.”

After having fought Shevchenko twice now, the question remains – who will Grasso face next? Given the underwhelming result against Shevchenko, it’s possible the UFC books the pair to go one more time. However, Grasso would prefer not to hold up the division and give another contender a chance. Despite this, she’s ready to go along with whatever the promotion wants.

“It’s an interesting question,” Grasso said. “I wouldn’t like to stop the division. There’s a lot of girls fighting to get this opportunity like I did. So I wouldn’t like to stop it. But whatever the UFC says, I’m in.”

Finally, in the fourth round of the bout, many believed Grasso may have connected on Shevchenko with some illegal knees. But Grasso noted they had a very clear referee in the Octagon with them, and she was pulling Shevchenko up to avoid her hand touching the mat.

“I was pulling her up and the referee was super clear,” Grasso said. “We had an amazing referee in the fight, so, no, no, I was pulling her up.”