Valentina Shevchenko vs Alexa Grasso Prediction: Betting on a player from Kyrgyzstan

On September 17, Valentina Shevchenko will rematch Alexa Grasso after a sensational defeat in March. The fight will top the UFC tournament in Las Vegas.

We can safely say that Valentina Shevchenko is a fighter already legendary, with a huge baggage of achievements and titles. She is a multiple world champion in Thai boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts, and she took the UFC belt in 2018 and did not give it up until March 2023.

In March, however, the near-upset of the year happened, and she lost by submission just to Alexa Grasso. And she lost that fight because of her own grave mistake.

Alexa Grasso has been competing in the UFC for quite some time, too, since 2016, and she started her decisive winning streak in 2020. With four wins in a row, she got the right to fight for the belt rather unexpectedly and took that chance perfectly. We should respect that Alexa immediately agreed to the rematch. However, she realizes she will be the underdog again, and defeating Valentina for the second time will be much more challenging.

The rematch with Grasso will answer the question - Did one particular mistake decide everything, or is the Kyrgyzstan player no longer the same? As an argument for the second option, we can give the example of Shevchenko's fight with Tayla Santos, which took place a little bit earlier - then Valentina was also very close to failure and won only by a split decision.

This defeat by Grasso can shake her up because she has already sat on the throne and is slightly relaxed.

As for her skills and abilities, everything is good. If Shevchenko doesn't make such a crazy mistake, she will confidently take the fight. Alexa will have to look for that mistake, avoid the fight, but at the same time get close and work hard in the clinch.