Valentina Shevchenko has been an unstoppable wrecking force in the Women's Flyweight division as she has been the champ since 2018. Shevchenko has had a dominant reign for a little more than four years. Valentina's professional MMA record is 23-3. Two of those three losses were against Amanda Nunes in the Women's Bantamweight Division. There's no shame in losing to the Lioness. Shevchenko hasn't suffered defeat since 2017 and is on a nine-fight win streak. However, Valentina's last bout didn't look like a typical Shevchenko freight train from hell performance. Talia Santos gave Shevchenko all she could eat and more. Santos even got one of the judges to side with her, handing Valentina her only split decision during her winning streak. Valentina doubled the number of strikes Talia threw, while Talia doubled Valentina's time of control. It was an amazing bout, I honestly felt like Talia could have won the fight. That being said, UFC fans have been arguing since that fight if Valentina's reign is coming to a close, or if Talia was just a really bad matchup for the Bullet.
Alexa Grasso is hoping for the former as she is set to face Shevchenko for her Flyweight Women's title this Saturday night. The only problem is Alexa is not known for being a dominant grappler like Talia Santos. Alexa gains most of her victories via decision. I'm not saying she can't submit anyone either, because she does have a submission win on her current four-fight win streak, but Alexa mainly wins by out-striking her opponent till the end. Evidently, Grasso has a fantastic gas tank. Maybe she will be able to keep up with Shevchenko, but nobody out-strikes the bullet.
That's why the oddsmakers have her heavily favored. Whoever they are, they clearly side with the argument that Talia Santos was simply a bad matchup for Shevchenko and her reign isn't ending anytime soon. The current DraftKings line is Shevchenko (-675) vs Grasso (+500). I think this is one that I'm going to avoid on the books. I wanna see how Valentina returns after the first time in eight fights that she took real damage. Is the door closing? Is it the dawn of a new era? Will Alexa Grasso change the guard in the Women's Flyweight Division for the first time in almost five years? We'll find out this Saturday at UFC 285!
No shame in losing to Nunez. She’s a great fighter. Tough as nails.