Alexa Grasso, Valentina Shevchenko set to make history with UFC 306 trilogy

There have been many memorable rivalries in women’s mixed martial arts over the years yet Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko are set to make some history this weekend at UFC 306 inside the Sphere.

Grasso will put her women’s flyweight title on the line against Shevchenko, the former longtime titleholder, in Saturday’s co-main event in what will be the first women’s championship trilogy bout in UFC history.

The pair originally met at UFC 285 in March 2023 when Grasso ended Shevchenko’s nine-fight winning streak and almost 4.5-year run as champion at 125 pounds.

Shevchenko was up two rounds to one on three identical scorecards (Grasso winning Round 1 and Shevchenko taking Round 2 and 3 all by 10-9 scores) before Grasso pulled off an upset fourth-round submission win to become the new champ.

Grasso retained the title – note that she did not defend – when the rematch ended in a split draw one year ago at the inagural Noche UFC event.

There was no Fight of the Night awarded at that event, but make no mistake Grasso vs. Shevchenko 2 was an excellent title fight and just about as competitive as five-round fights get – the official scorecards certainly reflected that.

Just like the first fight, Shevchenko was up 29-28 on all three scorecards heading into the championship rounds. Shevchenko was effective with takedowns and striking to win the opening round; Grasso earned a big knocked in the second but Shevchenko utilized grappling to recover and prevent it from being a dominant 10-8 round for Grasso; Shevchenko got back on track and won the third with a quick jab, more control time and a mounted guillotine submission attempt.

Round 4 is considered the consensus closest round of the fight. Judges Mike Bell and Sal D'Amato had Shevchenko winning it 10-9 with judge Junichiro Kamijo seeing it 10-9 for Grasso. This meant, in theory, that Grasso would need a finish in the final round to win the fight or a dominant round to possibly force a draw.

Shevchenko began the round strong but made an error with roughly 90 seconds remaining and Grasso poured on the offence to steal the round. The reason there is controversy surrounding this final round is because one judge did end up scoring it 10-8 for Grasso, which raised the collective eyebrows of combat sports fans, pundits and athletes alike.

All three judges gave the round to Grasso and had Bell simply scored the final round 10-9 like his colleagues did, this would’ve been a Shevchenko split decision victory. Bell instead gave Grasso a 10-8 round and his scorecard ended up 47-47; D’Amato had it 48-47 Shevchenko and Kamijo had Grasso winning 48-47 so we were left with a split draw and Shevchenko, in particular, with a bad taste in her mouth.

Although the 10-8 Round 5 and 47-47 scorecard are both puzzling to digest, the fact the fight ended as a draw is ironically fitting because of how truly even the fight was as a whole.

Shevchenko has been training for the same opponent for roughly two years at this point but it does not appear her preparation has been stale or repetitive.

“Even though it’s the same name, you cannot say it’s the same fight,” Shevchenko told Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter in Las Vegas this week.

Grasso and Shevchenko are coming off stints as opposing coaches on Season 32 of The Ultimate Fighter. Both represented themselves and their teams well during the show. They were respectful of each other and were clearly there to help aspiring UFC fighters improve rather than focussing on how the added exposure could build their own personal brands.

They were cordial and even developed a friendship during their time as TUF 32 coaches, however there is no love lost between Grasso and Shevchenko as competitors and most of it does stem from the disputed result the last time they fought. 

That rematch served as the main event of last year’s Mexican-themed Noche UFC at T-Mobile Arena.

Kyrgyzstan's Shevchenko, 36, as not shied away from suggesting Mexico’s Grasso, 31, was afforded a biased decision that resulted in their second and most recent fight being called a split draw.

Grasso thought it had more to do with her offensive output in the final two rounds.

“She’s always waiting, she’s always going backwards, but I think that if you want a belt, if you want to win a fight you have to go forward, you have to be trying to kill your opponent,” Grasso said.. "You’re not just waiting and waiting."

Grasso also mentioned that she loves the UFC 248 classic between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Weili Zhang, a five-round back-and-forth technical brawl and 2020’s Fight of the Year, and has always wanted to be involved in fight like that one.

“For the importance of the fight, for the huge event that it is, I mean I just expect that from me and my opponent that we are all there in the fight trying (to go for the finish),” Grasso added.

Shevchenko can become the first women’s flyweight to earn 10 wins in the division. She is currently tied with Katlyn Cerminara at nine total flyweight wins and holds the divisional record for most KO/TKO wins with four and most title fight wins with eight – the next closest is Grasso with one. The former champ and surefire future Hall of Famer is also the division’s all-time leader in total strikes and takedowns landed.

Grasso is unbeaten in six fights since moving up from the 115-pound strawweight division in 2020. Shevchenko (17:59) and Grasso (17:15) rank first and second in longest average fight time for women’s flyweight contests.

Shevchenko’s 1,547-day run as women’s flyweight champ is the sixth-longest title reign by any fighter in UFC history regardless of weight class or gender.