Valentina Shevchenko doesn’t want the weight of Mexican Independence Day bearing down on her trilogy clash with Alexa Grasso.
Shevchenko and Grasso will serve as rival coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter 32,” which features a middleweight and featherweight cast. The two are expected to clash for the third time sometime after the series concludes, potentially at UFC 306 on Sept. 14, when Dana White has vowed to put on a one-of-kind spectacle at The Sphere in Las Vegas in celebration of Mexican Independence Day. Having already fought Grasso once on a Noche UFC card last year, Shevchenko wants to have something celebrating her home country of Kyrgyzstan in the trilogy fight.
“I think more fair it’s gonna be one for her, one for me,” Shevchenko said during a promotional press conference for “TUF 32.” “We fought on Mexican Independence Day before. Now we have to find out something with Kyrgyzstan. Even now, I was briefly looking for the [TUF] fighters. We have a Mexican fighter, but we don’t have a Kyrgyzstani fighter. So, it has to be one for her, one for me so this is a fair game.”
Grasso brought Shevchenko’s flyweight title reign to an end with a submission victory at UFC 285 last March in one of the greatest upsets of all time. The two met in a rematch at Noche UFC in September, where Grasso retained her belt with a controversial split draw.
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