Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso fought in the women’s flyweight title rematch this past Saturday. There has been a lot of backlash about Mike Bell’s scoring of the fifth and final round. Not many people agreed with him, scoring it as a 10-8. Dana White has expressed his thoughts on the contest in a recent press conference.
How The Fight Played Out
It was a very close fight, with both fighters giving it their all. They went all-out for the full 25 minutes. It is safe to say that they left it all in the octagon. Shevchenko was trying to regain the belt that she lost after a highly dominating run as champion. At the same time, Grasso was trying to make her first successful defence of the title. Each fighter had good moments, but it was an extremely close fight.
Dana White Reacted To The Fight
Over the sport’s history, judging has and will always play a big part in it. Poor judging can affect the entire landscape of a promotion. At a contenders’ series press conference, Dana White talked about the Shevchenko and Grasso decision.
“I was on vacation when this thing happened,” White said. “When I found out one of the judges scored it 10-8, this guy should be f*cking investigated for this. This is the craziest sh*t I’ve ever seen in my life.
“As I was talking to people, there’s a seminar tomorrow with the athletic commission on 10-8’s. Especially with a title fight there’s so much at stake in a title fight. It’s more than just money, show and win, pay-per-view, championships and legacies. It’s just you have to have the best of the best in title fights. They’ve assured me this guy isn’t a bad guy. He just f*cked up and made a mistake. It’s unfortunate. There’s no way in hell that was a 10-8 round.”
White On A Rematch
Due to the injury and the damage that Shevchenko sustained during the fight, the trilogy will unlikely happen anytime soon. However, White has said that the rematch will happen.
“You have to do the rematch,” White said. “We will rematch them. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the fight that needs to happen, and yeah.”
All quotes via MMA Junkie.
It is safe to say that the third fight between the two will be as entertaining as the first two meetings have been.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
