- Valentina Shevchenko reflected on her dramatic title fight win over Alexa Grasso at UFC 306
- “Bullet” thought ESPN favored Grasso in their coverages
Valentina Shevchenko opened up about how important it is for her to reclaim the flyweight title and why she felt like ESPN favored Alexa Grasso in their title matches.
It all paid off for Valentina
Speaking to the media following her decision win over Grasso, “Bullet” admitted that it’s hard to put into words how happy she is now that she has become the flyweight champion once again. Shevchenko also acknowledged the mistakes she made in their last two title fights and she’s overwhelmed by how her hard work paid off in the third match.
“It was my third fight with Alexa and I don’t know, I just feel so different, so powerful, so strong – even better than I was a few years ago. This strength, I just felt it through my veins, through everything. I think it’s something good for a fighter. If you’re not evolving, it’s kind of like, ‘OK, it’s time for retirement.’ But if you feel strong and powerful and continue to do these hard things that you are doing but you love it, this is kind of what’s important. Rest – it doesn’t matter.”
“I’m so happy to return what belongs to me. It was one year without the belt. It was feeling so weird. Really right now, it’s difficult to present all the emotions going through me, because with all the adrenaline and thing after the fight that happened,” Shevchenko reflected.
“This belt, what it means for me, it’s definitely all the story, like, losing the belt because of my own errors that I did in the first fight,” Shevchenko said. “Then, fighting the second fight and winning the fight and getting a draw. Then, this third fight, this five months of training camp, it was so intense for me, not only physically but mentally. It is every time thinking about how to become better… For this particular fight I was feeling so much energy inside me, monster energy, and I just unleashed it and went with everything in this fight,” she added.
ESPN was biased
Interestingly, Shevchenko also claims that ESPN’s coverage of her title fights with Grasso, especially the first two matches were biased towards the Mexican. For “Bullet,” the way ESPN showed favored Grasso affected how people viewed their first match which she thought was also a draw.
“I feel ESPN was showing so much [of Grasso’s winning moments]. Even in the second fight with Alexa. So, every time [they were] showing the moment where she’s winning or she’s doing good combinations. And my combinations, they just ignored. But I won the fight, but they just ignored. All the people had this feeling that she won the fight. And I feel like it was a draw. I felt it was unfair a little bit, and now there is no way for them to show these clips. It’s going to do right and show the right clips now,” Shevchenko said.
Shevchenko lost her title to Grasso at UFC 285. She then fell short in the rematch that ended in a draw. Now that “Bullet” is back on top, it’s interesting to see what lies ahead of her epic rivalry with Grasso.
Watch Sehvchenko’s full interview below:
