"Didn't land anything that was that crazy besides that headbutt" - Sean O'Malley explains why Taila Santos should have won fight with Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 275
‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley seemingly believes that Valentina Shevchenko didn’t deserve the win on the judges’ scorecards against Taila Santos. Shevchenko successfully defended her UFC women’s flyweight title for the seventh time, beating Santos via split decision at UFC 275 on June 11.
Valentina Shevchenko dominated the striking exchanges throughout the fight, whereas Taila Santos decisively won the grappling exchanges from rounds one to three.
Intriguingly, Shevchenko’s striking caused the right side of Santos’ face to swell up towards the end of round two. The swelling significantly worsened after an accidental clash of heads in round three that fractured Santos’ right orbital bone. Rounds four and five featured ‘Bullet’ winning both the striking and grappling exchanges.
In an edition of the Timbo Sugarshow podcast, Sean O’Malley, his coach Tim Welch, and their podcast guests weighed in on the Shevchenko-Santos fight. O’Malley stated:
“I thought Santos beat Valentina last night. Dude, she took her back, was holding her mouth shut for like, three different times. Valentina didn’t land anything that was that crazy besides that headbutt. Valentina lost that fight. Santos is champ.”
O’Malley indicated that while ‘Bullet’ outstruck Santos, she was primarily punching the latter’s gloves. He thereby questioned whether those strikes should be counted or not.
‘Sugar’ also alluded to the accidental clash of heads between Shevchenko and Santos in the third round. On that note, the UFC bantamweight star opined that the headbutt completely changed the momentum of the fight as Shevchenko proceeded to win the championship rounds. He said:
“I didn’t think she landed anything; that headbutt really f**ked up. You can’t count that. You can’t be like, ‘Okay, that’s a strike.’”
Watch Sean O’Malley discuss the Valentina Shevchenko vs. Taila Santos UFC 275 matchup at the 9:33-minute mark in the video below:
Valentina Shevchenko was dealing with a foot injury heading into UFC 275
Sean O’Malley is expected to face Pedro Munhoz in a bantamweight bout at UFC 276 on July 2. Meanwhile, reigning UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko has suggested that she could face the winner of the upcoming UFC 276 fight between Lauren Murphy and Miesha Tate next.
Lauren Murphy will fight Miesha Tate at #UFC273 on April 9th. (per @MMAFighting) #UFC #MMA #UFCESPN https://t.co/zKkmhLtEtS
Speaking to ESPN MMA’s Megan Olivi after UFC 275, Shevchenko revealed that she entered her fight against Santos with a foot injury. Adding that the kicks she threw during the fight could’ve potentially exacerbated the injury. Shevchenko said:
"I step into the fight injured with my foot but looks like after the fight, I kicked so much and it's a little bit more injured but besides the foot [for which] we're gonna have X-ray after, besides this injury I feel amazing you know."
Watch Shevchenko's post-fight interview in the video below:
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