Kamaru Usman weighs-in on the rematch between Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso.
Valentina Shevchenko (23-4) is attempting to regain her belt against Alexa Grasso (16-3) at UFC Noche on September 16 in the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas.
Shevchenko got dethroned as the flyweight queen at UFC 285 back in March. In round 4, Grasso saw a spinning attack coming from Shevchenko and took advantage to jump on her back and put off a nasty submission. The rematch is happening on Mexico independence day and a lot of Mexican fighters will be in the card. Kamaru Usman shared his thoughts prior to the rematch
Kamaru Usman Talks Valentina Shevchenko vs. Alexa Grasso
Former welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman was on DC&RC to talk about the rematch.
“Alexa Grasso, who at the time I believe was ranked No. 3 and got the opportunity to fight because Valentina had ran through the entire division, when she got in there, she took full advantage of that opportunity because looking at that fight, who thought Valentina Shevchenko was going to lose to Alexa Grasso?”
One of the biggest upsets, and we seen a few recently, as Shevchenko was undefeated in the flyweight division. All her losses came against Amanda Nunes in a higher weight class. Kamaru Usman details how the rematch would be different.
“This is one of those things, now, with the rematch, it becomes even harder to try and get that belt off of these contenders,” Usman said. “They jump in there as just contenders, they leave as champion. That’s a whole other confidence they have now in thinking and saying to themselves, ‘Oh, I was the best all along. I just needed the opportunity.’”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
Kamaru Usman is speaking with experience as he lost his belt to Leon Edwards and had a quick turnaround for the rematch, which he lost as well. He believe Grasso will have the same mentality and that would give her the edge over Shevchenko.
Do you think Usman is right? Will we hear AND NEW or AND STILL? Let us know in the comments.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
