Dana White Favors Grasso-Shevchenko Trilogy: ‘It’s the Right Thing to Do’

Valentina Shevchenko (23-4) looked to reclaim the flyweight title from Alexa Grasso (16-3) in the main event at Noche UFC on Sept. 16. However, Grasso retained her strap courtesy of a controversial split draw after five closely-contested rounds. 

The 47-47 scorecard rendered by judge Mike Bell included a 10-8 fifth round in favor of Grasso, who had controlled only the last 90 seconds of the period. Shevchenko immediately expressed her disagreement with the result, blaming the controversial score on the potential pressure felt by the judges due to the event being held in honor of the Mexican Independence Day. 

Along with a majority of fans and pundits, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White is also in complete disagreement with the 10-8 score and suggested an investigation of Bell. However, the Nevada State Athletic Commission has seemingly assured White that Bell is a capable judge and this was an honest mistake. 

“When I found out one of the judges scored it 10-8, this guy should be f—-ing investigated for this,” White said at the Contender Series press conference on Tuesday night. “This is the craziest s—t I’ve ever seen in my life. As I was talking to people, there’s a seminar tomorrow with the athletic commission on 10-8s. Especially with a title fight, there’s so much at stake in a title fight. It’s more than just money, show and win, pay-per-view, championships and legacies. It’s just you have to have the best of the best in title fights. They’ve assured me this guy isn’t a bad guy. He just f—-d up and made a mistake. It’s unfortunate. There’s no way in hell that was a 10-8 round.”

White also appears to be clear regarding the next fight to make for the flyweight title.

“We have to do the rematch,” he said. “We will rematch them. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the fight that needs to happen.”