Valentina
Shevchenko (23-4) looked to reclaim the flyweight title from
Alexa
Grasso (16-3) in the main event at Noche UFC on Sept. 16.
However, Grasso retained her strap courtesy of a controversial
split draw after five closely-contested rounds.
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The 47-47 scorecard rendered by judge Mike Bell
included a 10-8 fifth round in favor of Grasso, who had controlled
only the last 90 seconds of the period. Shevchenko immediately
expressed her disagreement with the result, blaming the
controversial score on the potential pressure felt by the judges
due to the event being held in honor of the Mexican Independence
Day.
Along with a majority of fans and pundits, Ultimate Fighting
Championship CEO Dana White is also in complete disagreement with
the 10-8 score and suggested an investigation of Bell. However, the
Nevada State Athletic Commission has seemingly assured White that
Bell is a capable judge and this was an honest mistake.
“When I found out one of the judges scored it 10-8, this guy should
be f—-ing investigated for this,” White said
at the Contender Series press conference on Tuesday night. “This is
the craziest s—t I’ve ever seen in my life. As I was talking to
people, there’s a seminar tomorrow with the athletic commission on
10-8s. Especially with a title fight, there’s so much at stake in a
title fight. It’s more than just money, show and win, pay-per-view,
championships and legacies. It’s just you have to have the best of
the best in title fights. They’ve assured me this guy isn’t a bad
guy. He just f—-d up and made a mistake. It’s unfortunate. There’s
no way in hell that was a 10-8 round.”
White also appears to be clear regarding the next fight to make for
the flyweight title.
“We have to do the rematch,” he said. “We will rematch them. It’s
the right thing to do. It’s the fight that needs to happen.”