Former two-division UFC champion and event commentator, Daniel Cormier, is surprised at Valentina Shevchenko’s (23-4) recent lapse in form, resulting in a negative score of mistakes made in her last two fights.
In June of last year, Shevchenko managed to defend her title as promotion champion in the flyweight division, albeit with a close decision against Taila Santos. This marked her seventh title defense. However, in her eighth defense at UFC 285 last week, Shevchenko suffered a premature defeat to Alexa Grasso, submitting in the fourth round to her opponent’s chokehold.
“I never thought I’d see Valentina Shevchenko make consistent mistakes,” admitted Cormier. “She made mistakes in her last fight against Taila (Santos), rushing takedown attempts and she made mistakes against Grasso. Her biggest mistake was attempting that spinning kick at close range.”
“The last person I remember attempting that reckless kick was Chris Weidman in his fight against Luke Rockhold. He got taken down and beaten, which eventually led to Luke becoming the champion,” Cormier drew the analogy. “And here, Shevchenko did the same thing. When Grasso saw that kick, which she claimed to have trained for, she jumped on Shevchenko’s back, something I have never seen before, and viciously tried to finish her.”
It remains to be seen how Shevchenko will respond to this defeat, but one thing is for sure, she will have to reassess her strategy and avoid such costly errors in the future.
