Alexa
Grasso recently named potential opponents she would like to
face if she gets past Valentina
Shevchenko at UFC
306.
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Grasso will put her women’s flyweight title on the line in a
trilogy clash against Shevchenko in the co-main event at UFC 306 on
Saturday at the Sphere in Las Vegas. While Grasso would ideally
like to clear out the whole flyweight division, the Mexican isn’t
looking past “Bullet.”
Currently the No.1 ranked women’s pound-for-pound fighter in the
UFC rankings, Grasso named strawweight champion and No.2 ranked
Zhang Weili Zhang
as her dream opponent.
“Weili Zhang is my dream fight,” Grasso told Stake.com. “It will be one of my biggest fights
to date. She is strong, powerful and well-rounded. She is a great
fighter and I even heard she would love to test herself at 125, so
I would love to welcome her.“
Currently on her second strawweight title run, Zhang has defended
her strap with unanimous decisions against Amanda
Lemos and Xiaonan Yan
after winning it with a submission win over Carla
Esparza. The Chinese star has also expressed interest in a move
up to flyweight.
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As for Grasso’s own division, the champ has no difficulty deciding
between two potential contenders. Grasso believes Manon
Fiorot is clearly a more deserving title contender than former
strawweight champ Rose
Namajunas.
“I’m not the one who chooses these things. I think Manon
Fiorot is more deserving of the title shot than Rose,” Grasso
said. “She has been in the division longer and she has a bigger win
streak. She was also next in line before she got injured, so I
would like to fight Fiorot.“
After losing her strap to Carla
Esparza, Namajunas moved up to flyweight where she suffered a
unanimous decision loss against Fiorot in her divisional debut last
year. “Thug” has since rebounded with consecutive unanimous
decision wins over Amanda
Ribas and Tracy
Cortez.
Meanwhile, Fiorot hasn’t lost since her pro debut in 2018 and has
seven UFC victories to her name. The Frenchwoman would probably
have fought Grasso for the title already if she didn’t injure her
arm in her unanimous decision win over Erin
Blanchfield this past March. While Grasso also has double champ
aspirations, her friends in other weight classes are hindering
those plans. Strawweight Loopy Godinez and Bantamweight Irene
Aldana both train with Grasso at
Lobo Gym MMA in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. As the gym wants
to plants a champ each in all the divisions, Grasso’s double-champ
plans will have to wait.
“I would love to be a two weight-world champion, it is such a big
question and goal for me,” Grasso said. “However, I have friends in
the upper weight classes such as Loopy Godinez in the strawweight
division and Irene Aldana in the bantamweight division, and our
team’s goal is to all be champions in each of our weight classes,
so I would have to pause that dream for now.“