Former flyweight world champion Valentina Shevchenko hopes to see some serious changes in the way mixed martial arts is judged following her controversial split draw against Alexa Grasso at Noche UFC.
For 25 minutes, Shevchenko and Grasso delivered an intense back-and-forth matchup that could very well be a Fight of the Year contender. Unfortunately, much of the post-fight focus has been Mike Bell’s utterly confusing 10-8 scorecard in favor of Grasso in the fifth round which resulted in the bout being dubbed a draw. Since then, ‘Bullet’ has vented her frustration over the score after that single point difference ultimately cost her the chance to become a two-time titleholder.
‼️ The OFFICIAL decision of the Alexa Grasso vs Valentina Shevchenko 2 fight!#GrassoShevchenko2 #NocheUFC
— Mansoor Mohammad (@MansoorMohdK) September 17, 2023
With the MMA world being deprived of a winner and a loser, many are already clamoring for a trilogy bout. Sadly, fight fans will have to remain patient as Valentina Shevchenko is preparing to undergo surgery to repair an injured finger suffered in the early going of her title tilt with Grasso. Speaking with James Lynch in a MiddleEasy exclusive interview, ‘Bullet’ revealed that she expects to go through surgery within the next week.
“Right now they’re speaking about scheduling it next week and I hope to have it,” Shevchenko said. “The sooner the better for me because the sooner I have the surgery, the sooner I can recover and the sooner I can be back in action.”
As for her return, Shevchenko expects the recovery to be fairly swift, allowing her to compete in the first quarter of 2024.
“My understanding is it’s like two, four, or six weeks… Something like that,” she added. “Maybe four weeks in a cast, but I can still do exercise. I can maintain my shape, just no hand [exercises]. After that, there’s going to be a recovery and as I am told, three or four months in full action, so it doesn’t sound scary.”
Valentina Shevchenko Demans MMA Judges Be Held Responsible For Their Choices
Valentina Shevchenko has made her feelings about Mike Bell’s 10-8 scorecard very clear. Offering up some additional feedback, ‘Bullet’ believes that judges should be held responsible for the decisions they render.
“All the people who saw the fight know the truth and you cannot mislead them. You cannot say, ‘Okay, this is my point of view. I’m the judge.’ No. If you’re wrong, you’re wrong and it’s unacceptable at this level of competition. It’s very unacceptable. For example, everyone is speaking about it, but the judge who is responsible for that, he’s like, ‘I’m fine. I’m sitting there in the shadow. No one knows my face. No one knows me. No one knows who I am,’ and it’s not good. It’s not right.”
It was recently revealed that the Nevada State Athletic Commission would be holding a meeting on Wednesday to address the controversy at Noche UFC. Shevchenko believes this is a good jumping-off point for the commission, but recognizes that there is still a lot of work to do.
“If you did that thing. If you are wrong, you have to step [up] and take everything that you have to take for that. I also know that there is today, for the first time ever if I’m not mistaken, the [Nevada State] Athletic Commission is doing a seminar of judging for judges on the scores and everything. It’s like, oh my God, it has to pass so many unfair fights and unfair scores to finally break the limit and finally move forward. Finally, educate the judges.”
Alexa Grasso vs Valentina Shevchenko
-Official Scorecards-The R5 '10-8 Grasso' from Mike Bell swung the result of the fight from:
– Split Decision => #AndNew Valentina Shevchenko
to:
– Split Draw => #AndStill Alexa Grasso#UFC #NocheUFC #MMATwitter pic.twitter.com/SlZup10hf4— Consensus Score (@ConsensusScore) September 17, 2023
Inept judging in mixed martial arts has become somewhat of a pandemic in recent years with multiple questionable scorecards being turned in without much in terms of consequences. One of the most egregious examples came at UFC 282 last year when Paddy Pimblett scored a unanimous decision over Jared Gordon in a fight that virtually everyone had ‘Flash’ winning.
The very next night, Douglas Crosby, one of the judges presiding over Pimblett’s fight, traveled to Bellator 289 and handed in another highly questionable 50-45 scorecard in favor of Danny Sabatello over Raufeon Stots who went on the win the fight via split decision.
While Valentina Shevchenko is thankful that the commission is finally taking some type of action, she believes that judges should be available to fighters and potentially members of the press to explain the thought process behind some of their more questionable scores.
“Any person should be responsible for their action. I can explain why I took this decision. Why I took that decision. I you have me judge a fight, I can explain why I chose one winner against another one. This is what I think it should be because if you did it wrong, you have to accept that you did it wrong. You cannot just be hidden, but if you did it intentionally… On purpose because of some personal reasons or whatever, it’s not the place for you. It’s not the place to work as a judge in the fight, so it would be very right to have that option.”
Aside from making judges available to the media, Shevchenko believes bumping up the number of judges from three to five could help curb the plethora of poor decisions that have seemingly plagued the sport in recent years.
Shevchenko Wants the Next Flyweight Title Shot But She Has No Intention of Holding Up the Division
Valentina Shevchenko wants another shot at the flyweight world title. And by all accounts, she deserves it, but with impending surgery, ‘Bullet’ understands if the division has to move on without her for now.
“From my understanding, no matter what happens, my next fight is going to be for the title. That’s what it has to be. It’s what it should be, but if something happened, I don’t want to hold the division. I don’t want to say, ‘No, you have to wait for me.’ If the position were backward, I would not want to feel that. I would not want to stay and sit when I could fight and I could use my time as a fighter because we could have a long time, or we could have a shorter time of fighting.”
If Shevchenko isn’t the next woman to challenge Alexa Grasso, the two most likely contenders to get the nod are Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot. Both women are on the cusp of their first title opportunity, but the question is, who gets the shot?
Both women have looked absolutely fabulous in their UFC runs thus far with Blanchfield scoring six straight wins, including victories over Miranda Maverick, JJ Aldrich, Molly McCann, Jessica Andrade, and Taila Santos. Fiorot, who has also won six-in-a-row inside the Octagon, has bested some of the division’s top talents such as Mayra Bueno Silva, Katlyn Chookagian, and former two-time strawweight champion Rose Namajunas.
Asked who she sees getting the potential title opportunity first, Shevchenko said:
“I think for the fans and for the promoting, Erin would be the better option because that’s a very interesting fight, but at the same time, I don’t know. And it’s gonna be unfair to make them fight first together and define who is the number one [contender] for the title fight. Because it’s one fight now, but the other girl has to wait double longer for the opportunity, and in that double longer, so many things can happen. Losses, victories. Injuries and whatever, so it’s very tricky. It’s very hard to say who deserves it most.”
Watch the full interview below:
