Valentina Shevchenko has just been dethroned from her UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship, but apparently Daniel Cormier opines the mistakes were just building up.
“Bullet” who had been the reigning Flyweight champ since 2018, just had her title run end against Alexa Grasso in the co-main event at UFC 285 last weekend via fourth round submission.
Valentina struggled in the takedown defense: Daniel Cormier
While it is a huge credibility on the Mexican’s part, Daniel Cormier believes there were too many mistakes on Shevchenko’s part as well, and the UFC commentator and former two division champion believes she had been committing the mistakes in a number of her title fights in the past.
“I never thought I would see Valentina Shevchenko making consistent mistakes. She made mistakes in the last fight against Taila (Santos), trying to score takedowns and rushing them, and she made mistakes tonight. Ultimately, the biggest mistake was trying that spinning back kick from in close,” said DC on YouTube.
“The last person I remember doing that was Chris Weidman trying an ill-advised spin kick against Luke Rockhold, got himself taken down and beaten up, which ultimately led to Luke becoming the champion,” he went on, “Same thing tonight. When Grasso saw that spinning kick, which she said she trained for, she jumped on her back like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and she went crazy trying to chase the finish.”
Pointing out Shevchenko’s struggles in the Takedown Defense as Grasso managed to take her down a number of times, Cormier opines that Shevchenko needs to work on her wrestling to turn things around in the rematch.
“She struggled in the takedown defense, and if she’s going to extend this title reign, she will have to shore that up. But she was taken down multiple times but continued to fight. Every time she got to her feet, she did a great job of landing on Shevchenko to the point that Valentina started to make mistakes,” added Cormier. [H/T MMA Junkie]
Do you agree with Daniel Cormier’s statement on Valentina Shevchenko’s loss to Alexa Grasso? How do you think the rematch may go down? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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