UFC President Dana White and others were unkind in their assessments of the Noche UFC co-main event that saw Valentina Shevchenko regain her UFC flyweight championship over Alexa Grasso at The Sphere in Las Vegas.
Combat sports fans want striking, and the only thing that will help them resist the desire to see kicks, punches, elbows, and knees is submission wizardry. There aren’t a lot of fans who can appreciate the skill required in securing takedowns and maintaining position.
Unfortunately, that’s the path Shevchenko chose to regain her championship on Saturday. Shevchenko used her superior grappling, strength, and overall athleticism to dominate Grasso over all five rounds of their third and likely final meeting. While Shevchenko further solidified her place as one of the all-time greats and a future Hall-of-Famer, her workmanlike approach didn’t wow the crowd.
Shevchenko secured eight takedowns and enjoyed nearly 17 minutes of control time on the ground. Grasso did her best to be dangerous off her back. She tried multiple submissions, but Shevchenko was too poised, savvy, and strong to be in any real danger of submitting. How sparse was the striking in the co-main event?
Shevchenko and Grasso combined to land 63 total significant strikes. In comparison, the fight that won Fight of the Night between Estevan Ribovics and Daniel Zellhuber had 277 significant strikes. I’m a combat sports fanatic who appreciates grappling sequences as much as striking, so it was outstanding to watch from my viewpoint.
However, I know that I’m in the minority when it comes to my diverse appetite for combat sports. During the post-fight presser, White told the media he hoped The Sphere’s spectacle helped attract new fans to the UFC, but he was also hopeful they had stopped watching ahead of the Shevchenko-Grasso fight.
In response to the crowd’s lack of engagement during the co-main event, White also said, “You can control how much you spend on the production of an event, but you can’t control the fights.” In all fairness to Shevchenko and Grasso, White didn’t appear to be in love with the action in the main event.
He said he thought Sean O’Malley looked “flat,” and White questioned some of Merab Dvalishvili’s antics in the Octagon.
Grasso didn’t escape the wrath of the MMA community. She received some harsh criticism from her Teammate Diego Lopes, who won his fight against Brian Ortega.
During Lopes’ post-event interview, he was asked about Grasso’s performance, and he said she “froze.” In his response, Lopes also called out the lack of action from both fighters. Typically, you wouldn’t hear a fighter publicly criticize the performance of a training partner, but Lopes had time early Sunday morning.
It wasn’t just fighters and White calling out the lack of aggression. MMA Junkie’s Matthew Wells said Grasso lacked aggression, but he did laud the execution of Shevchenko’s game plan. Longtime MMA journalist Luke Thomas called the fight “disappointing,” and said that Shevchenko “wouldn’t open up and Grasso couldn’t make her.”
Based on how definitive Shevchenko’s win was on Saturday nigt, the lack of striking, and the fact that Saturday’s meeting was the third between the two women, I don’t think we will ever see these two fight each other again.
Here is a look at all of the results from Noche UFC.
Noche UFC 306 Main Card Results
- Merab Dvalishvili def. Sean O’Malley via unanimous decision (48-47×2, 49-46)
- Valentina Shevchenko def. Alexa Grasso via unanimous decision (50-45×3)
- Diego Lopes defeats Brian Ortega via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
- Esteban Ribovics defeats Daniel Zellhuber via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Ronaldo Rodriguez defeats Ode Osbourne via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27)
UFC 306 Preliminary Card Results
- Norma Dumont defeats Irene Aldana via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
- Ignacio Bahamondes defeats Manuel Torres via TKO at 4:02 of Round 1
- Ketlen Souza defeats Yazmin Jauregui via submission at 3:02 of Round 1 (Rear-naked choke)
- Joshua Van defeats Edgar Chairez via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
UFC 306 Early Preliminary Card Results
- Raul Rosas Jr. defeats Aoriqileng via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
