Valentina Shevchenko believes she’s heading into her historic trilogy fight with Alexa Grasso with the series tied at one win apiece.
The flyweights meet in the first ever trilogy for women in company history in the co-main event of UFC 306, which takes place Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas with Grasso’s 125-pound title up for grabs. Shevchenko looks to regain the championship she lost to Grasso at UFC 285 in March 2023.
In their rematch at Noche UFC in September 2023, Grasso and Shevchenko delivered an instant classic but the fight ended in a split draw.
Grasso has given Shevchenko advice on how to approach the third meeting in other interviews, but Shevchenko is fully confident that what she did in their second bout was enough to get her the victory.
“Reading between the strokes, it means like, ‘OK, OK, Valentina, If I stay on my side of the octagon and you play your game, I will be safe and I won’t lose my belt,’ so she’s expecting me stay on my side and she’s on her side, and we’re gonna do [a] shadowbox, or something like that,” Shevchenko told MMA Fighting. “And she’ll say, ‘OK, I’m a champion, I’m still going to have [the] belt,’ it’s so funny.
“But, speaking seriously, you know why we are speaking about third fight? It’s only because the second fight — everyone saw the fight, everyone knows, everyone was very surprised because of the mistake and error of a judge, what he did and if it [were not for him], everyone saw that I was the winner of this fight. I did enough to win the fight, like three rounds from the five. It was enough to win the fight. It’s only the reason why we are speaking about our trilogy.
“Everything [that] I did, it worked, everything, what I did in the second fight, all my strategy, it worked. So I don’t know, maybe she was too much into The Ultimate Fighter coaching and since [then], they’re trying to coach everywhere, but this is fine. This is fine. I think it’s also interesting for the people to hear and see her from other sides, as well.”
The 36-year-old Shevchenko has been competing in the combat sports world for a huge chunk of her life, including 28 pro MMA fights — 16 of which have taken place in the UFC. Shevchenko has built a legacy as one of the greatest women’s fighters in promotion history, and many believe her skill set is still good enough to beat most fighters, but question whether she can defeat the younger, surging champion.
Shevchenko thrives on people doubting her after entering many past fights with a massive chip on her shoulder. As she prepares to face Grasso for the third time, Shevchenko’s approach involves bringing pressure to her opponent, but not upon herself before it happens.
“It’s interesting, but every time, every training camp, it’s different,” Shevchenko said. “Every fight week is different, and even comparing one of the best fights that I had, every time was different, like how I felt. But I know for sure that, in terms [of], making [a] statement, make the one of the greatest fights, it’s too much pressure on your shoulders. It’s not good and sometimes it makes you freeze and you cannot do anything.
“And this time, I just prepare myself the best that I can and my coach Pavel Fedotov, he was working so good with me... mentally, physically, everything, and you know, the goal for me right now is just to show an amazing fight, one of the greatest fights. Just go there and show myself, show ‘The Bullet,’ what the speed is, what the power is and just like no stop, just go forward, forward until the end. This is what I have. This is what is my chip right now, what program I have in my head.”
