With Las Vegas just less than 24 hours away from being a witness to one of the biggest PPVs of the year so far as UFC 285 is stacked from the bottom all the way to the main event. While fans are excited to see Jon Jones throwing down against Ciryl Gane for the Heavyweight title, we have Valentina ‘Bullet’ Shevchenko who will appear in the co-main event to defend her Flyweight title for the 8th time against the Mexican fighter Alexa Grasso.
Alexa Grasso’s ready to put on a show tomorrow night! #UFC285 pic.twitter.com/BjeRtfRfYz
— UFC (@ufc) March 4, 2023
Grasso, who last appeared to headline the UFC Fight Night back in October 2022 against Viviane Araujo, is currently on a 4-fight winning streak. However, this streak isn’t the only reason that has allowed her to be the next in line for competing for the Flyweight title against ‘The Bullet’ this weekend, it is her drastic game improvement that she has shown after her 3 losses in the UFC.
Alexa Grasso losses
Grasso was handed her very first loss in the Octagon in February 2017 when she faced Felice Herrig. The card was headlined by ‘The Korean Zombie’ and Dennis Bermudez. Alexa came in as a 3-1 underdog in this fight. However, it proved to be Felice’s night through and through as she won via unanimous decision.
While fans expected Felice to be a tough fight for Alexa on the ground, what they didn’t expect was for Herrig to outwork Alexa on the feet, a place where Grasso had a significant advantage that she thought she’d be able to use to capture her win. Herrig, who is now retired, had something to say about this in her post-fight interview –
“They call me a grappler now because I’ve won by so many submissions, but I was a four-time champion in kickboxing.”
However, this didn’t stop Alexa to work her way up the ladder for trying to be in the title contention for the Women’s Flyweight title. She went on to fight and defeat Randa Markos via a split decision. But, this came to a standstill as she faced Tatiana Suarez in the May of 2018. Suarez submitted Grasso in just under 3 minutes of the very first round.
The bout took place in Santiago, Chile, with Suarez coming in as an undefeated fighter. Like every contest, it started on the feet but it didn’t take long for Tatiana to take the fight to the ground, where Alexa seemed to visibly struggle. After a good ‘scramble’ between the two, Alexa ended up losing via rear-naked choke at the 2:44 mark of the first round.
The third and most recent loss for Alexa came at the hands of Carla Esparza when the duo fought on Grasso’s birth soil in Mexico. The bout took place in September 2019, with the card headlined by fellow Mexican Yair Rodriguez against the American Jeremy Stephens.
Both women showed grit and toughness all the way to the end of the fight. Esparza landed two takedowns in the first round, but Grasso showed a major improvement in her ground game as she worked her way back up to her feet.
A majority of all 3 rounds gave the fans a display of the ground game of both the women, eventually leading Carla on her way to a majority decision. Without a surprise, the Mexican fans were not pleased with the result before they started boo’ing Carla out of the arena.
Grasso went on to win her next 4 straight fights, before being given the shot for the Flyweight title this weekend. Will Alexa improve her record to 16-3 and become only the second female fighter to defeat Valentina Shevchenko, right after Amanda Nunes? Fans will find out in less than 24 hours.
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