On Mexican Independence Day, Alexa Grasso retained her Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) flyweight title in a match against Valentina Shevchenko at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The deciding factor in the match, dubbed Noche UFC, was a 10-8 Round 5 for Grasso by cageside judge Mike Bell. If the round had been scored 10-9 for Grasso, Shevchenko would have regained the crown via split decision. Instead, Grasso remains at the top of the division by the narrowest of margins.
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Split Draws in UFC Championship History
The Grasso-Shevchenko 2 result is the sixth split draw in UFC championship history. Other notable split draws include Caol Uno vs. B.J. Penn (UFC 41); Gray Maynard vs. Frankie Edgar (UFC 125); Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson (UFC 205); Jan Blachowicz vs. Magomed Ankalaev (UFC 282); and Brandon Moreno vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (UFC 256).
Significant Strikes and Takedowns
Grasso landed 84 significant strikes during the match while Shevchenko landed 80. Grasso outlanded her opponent 28 to 15 in Round 2 and 20 to 19 in Round 4, while Shevchenko outlanded Grasso 14 to 12 in Round 1, 9 to 4 in Round 3, and 23 to 20 in Round 5. Grasso also managed to land 31 significant clinch strikes, compared to Shevchenko’s six. In terms of takedowns, Shevchenko landed four out of seven attempts and secured 8:37 of Octagon control time, while Grasso landed one out of two attempts and secured 2:39 of control time.
In other matches, Kevin Holland experienced a split-decision loss to Jack Della Maddalena in the welterweight co-main event. Holland attempted 356 significant strikes but only landed 125, a 35% success rate, while Maddalena landed 105 significant strikes with a 55% success rate. Maddalena now has six consecutive victories, tying him with Ian Garry for the longest active winning streak in the UFC’s welterweight division.
Raul Rosas landed 18 significant strikes in just 54 seconds against Terrence Mitchell in a featured bantamweight pairing, while Daniel Zellhuber landed 12 of 50 significant strike attempts in Round 1 of his lightweight matchup with Christos Giagos. Zellhuber’s significant striking accuracy increased to 24 of 51 attempts in Round 2, ultimately securing an anaconda choke at the 3:26 mark.