Dana White Angered By 10-8 Score In Grasso-Shevchenko Fight, Wants A Rematch
Dana White has hit out at Mike Bell for his 10-8 scorecard in the Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko 2 bout at UFC Noche during Mexican Independence Day.
The fight was scored as a split draw after Bell’s scorecard of 47-47 failed to result in a winner being declared after the other two judges declared it as 48-47 for each fighter. Shevchenko was not happy with the result, indicating her desire to potentially appeal the decision. In response, the Nevada State Athletic Commission confirmed that a meeting would be held on September 20th, 2023, to give guidance on what should be a 10-8 round. Although that may be the case, the fact that judges do not have to explain their scoring has made things more complicated in holding officials to account. In response, this is what White had to say.
“When I found out that one of the judges scored 10-8, I’m like, this guy should be f****** investigated for this. This is the craziest s*** I’ve ever seen in my life….In title [fights] — there’s so much at stake in a title fight…For that to be a 10-8 round, there is no excuse for that. There is no excuse for that 10-8.
“Unfortunately, you’ll probably never have the opportunity to have him sitting somewhere like this and ask him that question, because only he knows the answer to that question. Valentina gets dropped in [Round 2] — that’s not a 10-8 but the fifth round is a 10-8? It literally makes no sense. I get it, why the athletic commission wouldn’t want to put their guys out in front of the media and deal with the fans and all the bulls***,” White said
In response, White has called for a rematch to take place as soon as possible to settle the controversy.
“You have to rematch. You have to do the rematch. We will rematch them. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the fight that needs to happen,” White
Those comments were also echoed by Shevchenko, who wanted to see any such rematch in her country of Kyrgyzstan. But any chance of that happening soon is unlikely. Shevchenko had confirmed that she had injured her thumb during the bout despite her managing to complete the fight. And now the ‘Bullet’ will be out for a period of three months before she can even get back into training of any sort.
Yesterday got the results on my 1 st round hand injury.
Comminuted fracture that requires surgery 💪💪💪— Valentina Shevchenko (@BulletValentina) September 19, 2023