Valentina Shevchenko hopes to avoid Mexican Independence Day for her upcoming trilogy fight with Alexa Grasso.
In March 2023, Shevchenko’s dominant reign as the UFC women’s flyweight champion was ended by a shocking fourth-round submission loss against Grasso. Six months later, the Mexican superstar retained her throne with a close split-decision draw against ‘Bullet’ in the Noche UFC main event.
Later this week, Shevchenko and Grasso will begin filming The Ultimate Fighter Season 32 as coaches, with their trilogy fight expected later this year.
The former UFC women’s flyweight champion did a media interview earlier today and had this to say about potentially having a heated rivalry with Grasso during the reality show:
“I cannot say what is her mindset coming and what she is going to bring into the table for the show. I can say exactly about myself because I am martial artist. I am not a hate person. I’m not bringing in the hate. I’m bringing always the good energy, positive energy. Everyone who surrounds me, they can feel in our team, it’s always support to each other, it’s good environment, good vibe.”
Shevchenko continued:
“That’s why I’m focusing on the doing the same for my team. I don’t want them to focus on hate because there is enough fans who’s going to bring the hate and everything like that. We will focus on the performances on a united team and just go forward for the victory.”
Valentina Shevchenko isn’t enthusiastic about potentially fighting Alexa Grasso on Mexican Independence Day again
There are rumors of Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko headlining this year’s Mexican Independence Day event on September 16 for their trilogy bout. With that said, Shevchenko isn’t interested after fighting on the holiday last year, which she described by saying this during the previously mentioned media interview:
“I think more fair is going to be one for her, one for me. We fought on Mexican Independence Day before. Now we have to found out something with Kyrgyzstan. Even now, I was briefly looking through the [TUF 32] fighters. We have a Mexican fighter, but we don’t have a Krygyztani fighter. So, it has to be one for her, one for me. This is a fair game.”
Valentina Shevchenko is widely considered one of the greatest female fighters of all time. Yet, she has plenty to prove in her trilogy fight against Alexa Grasso, as a second loss to the Mexican world champion would take away from her legacy.
Watch Shevchenko’s TUF 32 media day interview below:
