Valentina Shevchenko knew it wouldn’t be easy to leave Noche UFC with the flyweight title once again strapped around her waist.
As it turns out, it kinda was.
‘Bullet’ delivered a dominant performance against ex-champion Alexa Grasso in September and scored a decisive decision victory to once again take the 125-pound throne.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani about her mindset going into one of the biggest fights of her career, Shevchenko admitted that closing out her trilogy against Grasso on Mexican Independence Day was a pretty big challenge, but nothing she wasn’t prepared to dive head-first into.
“I was a lot of work, I would say… the longest training camp, the longest preparation… All the training plans, I knew that I had to do things and I had to do my job in the best way,” Shevchenko told Helwani. “And yes, going into the third fight, second Mexican Independence Day, I knew it’s going to be even harder than the first time, so yeah, we just [were] training a lot, thinking a lot, and yeah, the most important [thing] is the belt is back where it belongs.”
https://x.com/arielhelwani/status/1853546773182357619
Valentina Shevchenko Went into ‘Killing Mode’ After Controversial Split Draw Against Grasso in 2023
Before retaking the title at Sphere in Las Vegas, Shevchenko was left empty-handed and devastated in her sequel scrap with Grasso the year before. By all accounts, ‘Bullet’ did enough to take back the belt that night, but the bout was ruled a split draw after one judge inexplicably gave Grasso a 10-8 score in the fifth and final round.
Hellbent on making her victory undeniable the third time around, Shevchenko left no stone unturned in her training.
“My coach said, ‘Yeah, if it’s happened and it happened for the [fight] last year, you have to make it that no one will try to do that again, so it’s gonna be one-sided [win].’… I knew it’s going to be hard for me to fight not only against your opponent but also to fight against everything,” Shevchenko added.
“And yeah, no matter what I’m a fighter, I’m a champion. Harder I see my challenge in front of me, it just put me in the killing mode.”
