Valentina Shevchenko’s reaction to Alexa
Grasso allegedly throwing illegal knees in 1st round pic.twitter.com/8QAOKD8u6D— Best MMA Moments (@XcellentMMA)
September 17, 2023
Valentina
Shevchenko (23-4) failed to reclaim the Ultimate Fighting
Championship flyweight title in the main event at UFC Noche as her
rematch against Alexa
Grasso (16-3) ended in a controversial split draw. However, the
10-8 fifth-round scorecard wasn’t the only controversial bit about
the highly anticipated rematch that went down on Sept. 16.
During a scramble in the fourth frame, Grasso sprawled out of a
takedown attempt by Shevchenko and landed multiple knees to the
head while chasing “Bullet.” Shevchenko immediately protested the
knees and later claimed the strikes were illegal as one of her
hands was on the mat.
When speaking to MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, a Nevada State
Athletic Commission Official cleared the air regarding the
specifics of the “knees to the head of a grounded opponent” rule.
As per the NSAC official, “Bullet” is correct about one hand on the
ground being enough to consider the opponent grounded. However, the
hand in question should either be flat on the ground or
weight-bearing, which wasn’t the case with Shevchenko, as
determined by the NSAC.
“I did speak to the Nevada State Athletic Commission and an
official there told me that it is one hand, so she’s [Shevchenko]
correct about that,” Helwani said in a video
on social media. “The hand has to be either flat on the mat or
weight bearing. And they also told me that in between rounds, they
also checked the replay…They checked it multiple times and they
determined that all the knees hit legally because the hand wasn’t
flat, and/or weight bearing, and/or even at times on the mat when
they were landing. So their determination is, those were not
illegal knees.”