- Robert Whittaker shared his thoughts on the Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko rematch at Noche UFC
- “The Reaper” thinks “Bullet” deserved to win
Robert Whittaker is among the many who were baffled by how the women’s flyweight title fight rematch between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko ended up in a split draw. For “The Reaper,” the fight was close but “Bullet” should’ve gotten the win.
Valentina put more pressure
Speaking on MMArcade podcast, Whittaker looked back at the fight and reckoned that Shevchenko was the one who put the pressure on Grasso and not the other way around. The former middleweight champion added that even though “Bullet” got knocked down, the judges shouldn’t have disregarded Shevchenko’s aggression and superb jabs.
“I certainly think they started out very wary, they started very wary, very respectful of each other’s abilities. I gotta say Shevchenko’s jab is bar none, it was on point the way she utilized it from round one through round five. It was beautiful. She did get dropped but in a scrappy fight, it was fighting, it’s hard to close the distance and get into that scrap distance. That jabbing was so effective but it was a close fight and honestly I could have seen it going, I can see the decision swinging both ways. Me, personally… I probably would have scored it in Shevchenko’s favor and I think she won three of the five but in saying that though it wouldn’t have been mind-blowing for her not to have one for Grasso because she did have some really strong rounds like the round where she knocked down, she finished on Shevchenko’s back… she was pushing, putting a lot of pressure and pressure is I feel in MMA at the moment, it’s been scored very highly,” Whittaker explained.
It shouldn’t have been a 10-8
While Whittaker could understand that the decision could’ve gone both ways, he couldn’t tell what was the basis of the 10-8 scorecard in the final round.
“But what I don’t understand is the way it played out. It wasn’t like it was scored 10-9, 10-9 split both ways, don’t know what’s going on, no it was that last round, that last round… at 10-8 in Grasso’s favor and that is mind-blowing,” Whittaker added.
Like Whittaker, Shevchenko herself also questioned the 10-8 scorecard that ultimately resulted in a split draw. On the other hand, Grasso prefers not to dwell on it and just move on.
It can be recalled that Grasso dethroned Shevchenko at UFC 285 via submission. At this point, a trilogy match between the two is still up in the air as “Bullet” opted to take a break and fully recover first.
Check out Whittaker’s full podcast session below:
