The title bout, which headlined UFC Fight Night 227 in Las Vegas, went the full distance and ended in a split decision draw with scores of 47-48, 48-47 and 47-47, which saw the Mexican retain the championship gold.
After a close first round, Grasso sent her opponent to a knockdown in the second five minutes, and “Bullet” responded with a guillotine choke attempt and an elbow leverage exit in the third segment of the match. In the fourth round, Shevchenko inflicted a serious dissection on the champion with an elbow strike on her way out of the clinch, and in the final five minutes Grasso took advantage of her opponent’s mistake and took her back, but was unable to finish her as she did in the first fight.
After the result was announced, each of the girls expressed confidence in their victory, and Shevchenko directly accused the judges of bias, recalling that the tournament was dedicated to Mexico’s Independence Day.
In the co-main event, Australian welterweight Jack Della Maddalena extended his UFC winning streak to six matches with a split decision win over American Kevin Holland.
In the third event of the tournament, 18-year-old Raul Rosas Junior put his career back on track after his first loss, finishing Terrence Mitchell by TKO in the 54th second of the fight.
From other results of the event we should note the successful performance of Russian middleweight Roman Kopylov, who recorded his fourth consecutive victory by knockout, at the end of the second round with a punch to the liver, putting an end to the confrontation with American Josh Fremd.
One of the fights of the tournament ended without the announcement of the result, because the judging team, after studying the video replay, considered premature to stop the fight by referee Chris Toinoni, who already in the first round reacted to the hanging arm and recorded the victory of Edgar Chairez over Daniel Lacerda by guillotine choke in the rack.
Daniel Zellhuber, Lupita Godinez and Charlie Campbell earned early victories.
All results from UFC Fight Night 227.