Mixed martial artists are known for showing the scars from war after a fight—win or lose. Monday was former UFC women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso’s turn to display the bruises from a one-sided loss to rising contender Natalie Silva on Saturday night in Montreal at UFC 315.
Grasso took to Instagram to show off a pretty gruesome image of the aftermath of her fight with Silva.
During Grasso’s unanimous decision loss to Silva, she was picked apart by the Brazilian’s combination of speed and striking accuracy. Grasso has displayed high-level boxing during her career, but she simply couldn’t get a handle on the elusive Silva.
During the fight, Silva connected with 65 significant strikes to just 45 from Grasso. Even when Grasso attempted to zero in on Silva to secure a takedown, the speed and explosiveness were too big of an advantage for her to overcome.
The loss will drop Grasso to No. 2 at best for now, but there is a chance she could fall further. Erin Blanchfield and Maycee Barber clash on May 31, and the winner of that fight could move past Grasso in the rankings.
Meanwhile, I’d expect Silva to vault to No. 1 when the new women’s flyweight rankings are released since that’s where Grasso was ranked ahead of their fight on Saturday.
While Silva looked championship-ready in her defeat of Grasso, she will likely have to wait a while to get a title shot. Valentina Shevchenko successfully defended her 125-pound crown via unanimous decision over Manon Fiorot in the UFC 315 co-main event.
It is likely she will get a super fight against reigning women’s strawweight champion Weili Zhang, who is expected to vacate the strawweight crown to move up to 125 pounds. Silva’s best chance is probably to wait for the winner of that fight and then to hopefully get an opportunity to challenge for the crown in early 2026.
Grasso will probably get a decently long medical suspension because of the damage she took to her face, so we’ll see when she will be cleared to train and to return to the Octagon. However, it would make sense for her to face the winner of Blanchfield-Barber or to face the winner of the June 14 fight between Rose Namajunas and Miranda Maverick.
Namajunas-Grasso has some appeal, as it would be a battle between two former champions—and that’s not commonplace in the women’s division. As it is, Grasso showed her commitment to the sport and that she is a true warrior. Her return will be anticipated, but as she has now lost two in a row, the stakes will be even higher for the next fight—no matter who she fights.
UFC 315 Results
- Main Event: Jack Della Maddalena defeats Belal Muhammad by unanimous decision (48-47×2, 49-46)
- Co-Main Event: Valentina Shevchenko defeats Manon Fiorot by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)
- Aiemann Zahabi defeats José Aldo by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Natalia Silva defeats Alexa Grasso by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Benoît Saint Denis defeats Kyle Prepolec by submission (arm-triangle choke) at 2:35 of Round 2
- Mike Malott defeats Charles Radtke by KO (strikes) at 0:26 of Round 2
- Jasmine Jasudavicius defeats Jessica Andrade by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:40 of Round 1
- Modestas Bukauskas (30-27, 29-28) defeats Ion Cutelaba by split decision (30-27)
- Navajo Stirling defeats Ivan Erslan by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)
- Marc-Andre Barriault defeats Bruno Silva by KO (elbow) at 1:27 of Round 1
- Daniel Santos defeats JeongYeong Lee by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Bekzat Almakhan defeats Brad Katona by KO (uppercut) at 1:04 of Round 1