Valentina Shevchenko aims to avoid leaving her upcoming fight against Alexa Grasso in the hands of the judges, emphasizing her determination to secure a decisive finish due to past controversial judging decisions.
Valentina Shevchenko plans to stick to one of Dana White’s favorite phrases: Never leave it in the hands of the judges.
This Saturday, Shevchenko faces rival Alexa Grasso in a flyweight championship trilogy bout. It’s the co-main event of UFC 306, with Grasso aiming to defend her title for the second time.
Grasso submitted Shevchenko at UFC 285 to become champion. She then retained her belt via a split draw at the inaugural Noche UFC in September 2023.
The draw call was controversial. One judge awarded Grasso a 10-8 score in the final round, which fans and fighters criticized.
Asked if she’s worried about judges being swayed by a Mexican Independence Day crowd favoring Grasso, Shevchenko hopes the bout doesn’t even need scorecards.
“The concern is to finish the fight,” Shevchenko told reporters at UFC 306 media day. “This is No. 1 what’s in my head.”
“When to seize the opportunity, to just do what you have to do, 100 percent, finish the fight.”
She elaborated on her history with shaky judging. She mentioned examples from her kickboxing days, including biased refereeing at a Muay Thai competition.
“I’ve been in martial arts for 31 years,” Shevchenko said. “I started when I was five.”
“Throughout my career, I fought in many places against various fighters, often in their home countries.”
“I had a world Muay Thai championship where I had to ‘fight’ against the referee.”
“There was a woman referee who tried everything to take points from me,” she explained. “I was fighting a Thai girl in the final.”
“She invented reasons to penalize me but failed. In the end, I won, and she said, ‘You are very lucky.’”
Shevchenko was also asked about recent UFC debutante Wang Cong. The Chinese fighter needed just 62 seconds to flatten veteran Victoria Leonardo.
Wang holds a win over Shevchenko from their kickboxing match in 2015. However, Shevchenko claims that fight involved biased scoring as well.
“It’s funny because when we fought in China,” Shevchenko recalled, “any foreign fighter knew they had to knock out their Chinese opponent convincingly.”
“If not, they’d lose due to biased officiating.”
“Comparing those judges with what happened in my last fight with Alexa—those judges were angels compared to China back then.”
Given the controversy of their second fight, Shevchenko is determined to secure a finish in this trilogy bout. Yet, she hesitated to say any major changes were needed in her preparation.
“I can’t say that I lost two times,” she stated. “Our second fight—I won it, but they gave a draw.”
“So what should I do? What should I change?”
She continued, “I focused on performing and preparing myself the best way possible. I had an amazing training camp.”
“Pushed myself beyond limits and am ready for action. It’s going to be an amazing event and an amazing fight.”