Issue 208

August 2024

Valentina Shevchenko is ready to prove she’s still the best, and Fighters Only’s E. Spencer Kyte caught up with her to discuss her mindset, preparation, and what it will take to reclaim her title at UFC 306.

When the championship rematch between Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso wrapped up, there was a delay in announcing the results. Anyone who watched the two talents do battle would agree it was a competitive fight. A score of 48-47 either way was easy to justify. A 47-47 split draw was unexpected and gave Grasso the crown she’d put on the line. Shevchenko was left standing in the Octagon, wondering what had just happened.

“Why we’re speaking about a third fight is only because this result, as you say it, was a weird result,” begins Shevchenko when asked about the outcome of this fight before her third bout with Grasso at UFC 306 on September 14. “(I was) completely winning the fight — I won the fight — and only because of the weird action of one judge, we come to a result as a draw. Draw in the title fight? This is nonsense what had happened because of a 10-8, and this is the only reason why we’re speaking about a third fight.”

She’s not wrong. When the official scorecards were made public, they showed Judge Bell had awarded Grasso a 10-8 in the fifth and final round. It is a score usually reserved for a situation where one competitor shows clear dominance for an extended period over their opponent in a given round. According to the criteria by which these officials are tasked with scoring these bouts, it comes down to what is commonly referred to as “The Three Ds” — damage, dominance, and duration. Were these present? Let’s unpack it. 

TALE OF THE TAPE

Shevchenko controlled the opening three-and-a-half minutes of the round with her striking. She fed Grasso enough jabs and clean shots to cause the cuts on her face to gush blood. That takes both dominance and duration off the board. Grasso deftly navigated her way to Shevchenko’s back as the former champion looked for a head-and-arm throw late in the round. There was a brief instance where Grasso seemed close to locking up a rear-naked choke. Grasso's strikes were not enough to prompt referee Herb Dean to step in or direct Shevchenko to fight back, which would let her know he was getting close to stopping the fight. Even after the final horn, the two women clambered to their feet. It was still Grasso who looked worse for wear, blood running down her cheeks.

The other two judges —veteran officials Sal D’Amato and Junichiro Kamijo — scored the final round 10-9 for Grasso. They valued her achieving a dominant position (back mount), threatening with the rear-naked choke submission, and having more one-sided success in the final minute-and-a-half of the round over the work Shevchenko had done in the opening three-fifths round.

Kamijo scored the fight 48-47 for Grasso, the champion doing enough to win the second, fourth, and fifth rounds from his vantage point. D’Amato’s scorecard was 48-47 in favor of Shevchenko, with the challenger earning 10-9s in the first, third, and fourth. But Bell, who had Shevchenko up 39-37 heading into the final round, having awarded her the first, third, and fourth rounds on his scorecard, just like D’Amato, awarded Grasso a 10-8 score for her final 90 seconds of effort in the fifth, instantly guaranteeing that the rivalry between the two flyweight standouts was not over.

“These are the facts,” says Shevchenko, her tone of voice treading that delicate line between annoyance and directness. “It’s not frustration. It’s not emotion because I’m now in the position where you’re so close to the fight that you don’t let yourself express any emotions. These are the facts people should know.”

ROUND 3 WAS A YEAR IN THE MAKING

After the incredible response to last year’s Noche UFC event, Dana White was quick to declare that the mid-September fight card being tethered to Mexican Independence Day would become an annual tradition and immediately set his sights on hosting this year’s installment at The Sphere in Las Vegas.

With things unsettled between Grasso and Shevchenko, the duo was guaranteed to face off for a third time. However, the trilogy bout not taking place until September felt like a long wait to resolve things, regardless of the synergy of having Grasso, the UFC’s lone Mexican titleholder, competing in the event.

Both champion and challenger came away from their second encounter banged up, with Shevchenko needing surgery to repair her injured thumb. Rather than try to hustle the two into a summer fight and jeopardize Grasso’s potential availability to defend her title at what has now been branded Riyadh Season Presents Noche UFC, the rivals were instead set to coach opposite one another on The Ultimate Fighter. They would each lead an international squad of hopefuls in the featherweight and middleweight divisions.

“In general, it was an amazing experience,” Shevchenko says when asked about her time coaching on the long-running reality TV competition. “My team was amazing people. My assistant coaches were our friends from all over the world. From here in the United States — Jacksonville, El Paso, Las Vegas — from Argentina, from Lebanon. “It was a good experience, especially working with the guys, trying to make them better, watching the fighters going very strong, wanting it so much. Overall, I had a very good time at TUF.”

While the results weren’t necessarily there for Team Shevchenko, the 35-year-old from Kyrgyzstan gave them the most complete experience possible in Vegas.

“I took them to different events,” begins Shevchenko. “Definitely the shooting range. We flew in a helicopter, looking at Las Vegas from above, we went on a boat ride. “It’s what I do in my life and what has characterized me as a person. I wanted them to be involved in my lifestyle.”

Viewers were given a glimpse into the varied activities that have contributed to the former champion’s aura as a jet-setting international woman of mystery with some 007 vibes.

COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS

Some seasons see the tensions between the opposing coaches bring the drama, but in this season, there was understanding and collaboration. The rivals focused on their roles as coaches, navigating issues with fights being delayed, athletes missing weight, and one competitor being unable to compete in the semifinals. There was no ill will. It was just two competitors who wanted to do right by their fighters and set the best example.

“I’m a martial artist, I’m martial arts all my life,” says Shevchenko. “For me, I understand it’s part of reality that everyone wants this tension, but you don’t want to break your personality only because someone wants to see something, right. I was gonna do how I felt on the show. No one pressured you or said, ‘You have to do that, you have to say that or fight there. It’s your own show, and you do whatever you want. You have to show how you are, what you are as a person. This was most important for me, and it’s important to show to my team, to the guys, not just training, training, training, but also my lifestyle. That’s why I was very strict that I would not break my personality no matter what.”

Between surgery, filming, and the trilogy bout slated as the co-main event at The Sphere, by the time Shevchenko makes the walk to the Octagon, it will mark the longest she has gone between fights.

“Out of competition, yes, but no one stopped, no one (took a break),” she says. “It was a lot of training, a lot of traveling. There were so many events happening this year, and now I can definitely say that I’m in good shape. The surgery I had after the last fight, it’s already healed, and I was making sure that it is healed all the way because I don’t want it to heal 50 percent and then you realize, ‘I can’t continue this hard training camp’ because you didn’t spend enough time for recovery. I’m happy that I’m in full health.”

ALWAYS A CHAMPION, BUT READY TO BE CHAMPION AGAIN

Shevchenko won the flyweight title with a unanimous decision over strawweight Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 231 in Toronto. She defended the title eight times — a record amongst female UFC titleholders — and sat on the throne for 1,547 days, the second-longest reign of any women’s champion and the sixth-longest reign of any champion ever. Only Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, Georges St-Pierre, Amanda Nunes, and Jose Aldo carried their titles for longer.

Yes, Shevchenko held the flyweight title longer than Jon Jones had the light heavyweight strap the first time around (1501 days) and longer than Alexander Volkanovski lorded over the featherweight ranks (1526). These are why her ousting at UFC 285 came as such a surprise and why it’s odd to conceive of her in the position she’s in now. After amassing nine straight wins over five years, Shevchenko will have gone two years, three months, and three days since her last victory by the time she makes her walk on September 14. It’s the longest she’s gone in her UFC career between wins. 

“My life is martial arts,” says Shevchenko. “For me, it’s not that you feel good only when you are winning, only when you are on the top. I’m on the top! I know exactly who I am — I am champion — and only because of a judge who had a different opinion on something that doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t change how I see myself. I’m in this sport, in martial arts for so long. For me, to be a martial artist is already a success. To be a martial artist and stay in good healthy, good physical and mental shape all this time, it’s already success.”

That doesn’t mean she’s not eager to reclaim the title. Since the show wrapped up, Shevchenko has returned to her globetrotting ways with trips to the Caribbean, Thailand, and a training camp in El Paso, Texas. 

“It’s amazing,” Shevchenko says about wrapping up her training alongside friends in Texas. “I enjoy to be here in Texas, in El Paso, and the Rio Grande is a wonderful place; the water is very fresh and refreshing after the training. And yes, definitely working in the river is no joke,” she adds with a laugh when asked about videos of her shadowboxing in the strong waters alongside UFC veteran Joselyne Edwards. “It’s tough, especially when you’re kicking, jumping; you feel the full experience of what it means to change the rhythm of the fight.”

WHAT TO EXPECT

With her preparations nearing completion and the third bout with Grasso looming, I ask Shevchenko if a victory for her at UFC 306 means we would see a fourth fight between the two rivals, as the series would then be deadlocked at one win, one loss, and one draw apiece. Ever focused, ‘Bullet’ parries away the question like a lazy jab.

"You know me,” offers Shevchenko. “Every time before the fight, I never say, ‘I do this, and after the fight, I have this plan, that plan.’ You never hear those things from me because I’m very focused on events in front of me. I am not making any plans for September 15 because everything that I live at the moment is to the date September 14. I’m just getting ready, training as hard as I can,” she adds. “My coach Pavel, he is training me the best way, and I feel great. I will just go there and fight my soul; I will fight with everything I have. Whatever I have to do to win the fight, I will do that.”

She may always be an incredible champion, but Shevchenko is once again coming for the throne.