Is Alexa Grasso better than Valentina Shevchenko as Michael Bisping claims?
At UFC 285, Alexa Grasso did what many thought impossible in the women's flyweight division by dethroning Valentina Shevchenko. At the time, 'Bullet' was riding the wave of a 9-fight win streak, during which she had defended her title more times than any other UFC women's champion had defended theirs.
Shevchenko was hailed by many as the most skilled female mixed martial artist in the world, and the only credible threat left to Amanda Nunes, who reigned in the division above her. However, Alexa Grasso stunned the MMA world by handing 'Bullet' her first loss since 2017.
In the wake of her first-ever defeat at flyweight, which followed a questionable performance against Taila Santos, some wondered whether Valentina Shevchenko had lost a step. In fact, Michael Bisping recently claimed that Alexa Grasso is a better fighter than her, and that 'Bullet's' time has likely come to an end.
Michael Bisping has high praise for Alexa Grasso #UFC #MMA bjpenn.com/mma-news/michaβ¦
He punctuated his point by stating that everyone has a beginning to their end. The notion that Valentina Shevchenko is aging past her ability to fight as she once did is an interesting theory. But do her performances in her last two fights corroborate Bisping's take?
Valentina Shevchenko's win over Taila Santos
Despite all of her accolades and combat sports experience, Valentina Shevchenko was never as close to a perfect mixed martial artist in the way that most believed she was. Instead, she's an extremely efficient striker with a formula that's dumbfounded the 125-pounders in a relatively shallow talent pool.
At her core, the former UFC women's flyweight champion is a patient, low-volume counter-striker, who is low on variety, but high in effectiveness. This is due mainly to her ability to easily frustrate her opponents into making mistakes. When standing at a distance from the outside, she's content to trade low kicks.
Since she keeps a long enough range to both cause her opponents to kick ahead of themselves and enable her to easily slide her own legs out of the way, she is at ease with beating her foes in low-volume affairs. If her opponents grow frustrated enough over constantly missing, they lunge into range.
Shevchenko's answer to this is to pull back at the waist and stun her opponents with either a check hook or spinning back-kick. Alternatively, she targets the body with non-committal kicks, making her kicking leg easy to retract right back into her stance, so she is never in a position to be hit.
June 11, 2022,
UFC 275
Valentina Shevchenko defended her title against rising contender Taila Santos, where Valentina secured a very close decision victory over 5 rounds to retain her flyweight belt π https://t.co/cITaNVOOZN
This frustrates her opponents even more, but when they lunge forward again, 'Bullet' instead ducks under their punches to secure a body lock in pursuit of a quick trip-takedown. Her entire game is built around being a faster striker than her foes to be elusive on the feet, and stronger than them in the clinch.
This approach hit several roadblocks throughout her career. MMA's consensus GWOAT and Valentina Shevchenko's competitive rival Amanda Nunes was too long for her to play at range with, and too powerful for her to engage. Meanwhile, her troubling performance against Taila Santos revealed her reliance on strength.
If she's not physically stronger than her opponent in the clinch, she struggles, which she did against Santos. The Brazilian's goal in her fight with Shevchenko was to grapple. This was made all the easier against a foe who initiated all of the grappling sequences on her behalf by clinching so often.
This caused Valentina Shevchenko's coach, Pavel Fedotov, to instruct her to stop clinching with Santos. Additionally, Shevchenko will occasionally attempt head-and-arm throws from the clinch, but more often than not, all it does is expose her back, which allowed Santos to take her back several times during their bout.
Her poor performance against Santos was more about her facing a stylistically unfavorable matchup in the form of a physically stronger grappler who made her pay for clinching so often, as well as attempting head-and-arm throws. Age wasn't a factor then. A disparity in physical strength was, as was an accidental headbutt.
But what about her performance against Alexa Grasso?
Alexa Grasso's win over Valentina Shevchenko
Much like Julianna PeΓ±a did against Amanda Nunes at UFC 269, Alexa Grasso scored a massive upset over a seemingly unbeatable foe at UFC 285. Michael Bisping has outright declared the first Mexican UFC women's champion a superior fighter to 'Bullet', and implied that Shevchenko is now aging.
As she's 35 years old, it's easy to grasp the former middleweight champion's point. But how strong is his point? Taila Santos' successes, even in a loss, against Valentina Shevchenko had more to do with her superior physical strength and how her grappling style matched up with Shevchenko's constant clinching.
When it came to Valentina Shevchenko's performance against Alexa Grasso, her struggles were due more to her reliance on speed. Shevchenko is blindingly fast, such that former foe Jessica Eye once accused her of speeding up her training footage. But against Alexa Grasso, 'Bullet' found someone who exceeded her speed.
Shevchenko's striking game is built around countering her opponents from the outside. She doesn't operate in mid-range and instead searches for the clinch if her opponent steps too close. The absence of reliable mid-range weapons made things difficult for her against Grasso.
Alexa Grasso is a pocket boxer by trade, whose fast linear movement allows her to dart into range very quickly. Her ability to cross the distance into mid-range faster than Shevchenko could react allowed her to repeatedly stun the former champion with quick jab-right cross/right overhand combinations.
Age didn't undercut her performance, as Shevchenko was still fast enough to consistently make Grasso pay for entering the pocket by ducking under her punches to score takedowns. Instead, her primary struggle was not having pocket-boxing mechanics fast enough to deal with Alexa Grasso at mid-range.
March 4 - UFC 284
Alexa Grasso defeats Valentina Shevchenko via Rear Naked Choke in the 4th
The overwhelming majority gave Alexa no chance. Incredible moment https://t.co/M8Trg4Biyk
Valentina Shevchenko's speed is fine-tuned for ducking into clinches and landing counter-strikes from a safer distance. Against Alexa Grasso, she didn't necessarily face an opponent who was a better overall fighter than her, she simply faced someone with the right mechanics to punish her in a specific area.
It eventually led to Shevchenko attempting a spinning back-kick from too close a range. In doing so, she exposed her back close enough to Grasso for her to mount her back and secure the face crank seconds later. Age, it seems, wasn't a factor in her performance.
But Bisping may still have a point. Perhaps Shevchenko has gotten older and Grasso is simply better. Their rematch at UFC Fight Night 227 should offer a definitive answer.