Liz Carmouche says that Valentina Shevchenko underestimated Alexa Grasso

Liz Carmouche feels that former UFC Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko underestimated the ability of Alexa Grasso.

Liz Carmouche, the current Bellator Flyweight champion, is overjoyed and extremely impressed with Alexa Grasso and feels that Shevchenko underestimated the skills of the Mexican.

“I was honestly so impressed with Grasso’s performance. I think that Valentina honestly kind of took her foot off the gas. I think that she didn’t expect that Grasso had the ability to defeat her. I was fortunate enough to get to know Grasso early in her MMA career when she was kind of tying the pieces together between jiu-jitsu and boxing. To see how far she’s come is so phenomenal. She’s such a sweetheart and such, to me, a great champion and great representation of what it can be,” Carmouche said in an interview with MMA Mania.

She also lauded Grasso for being a nice person.

“That’s a wonderful person to have the belt and to think that she studied it and saw the moment, and that’s how she got her, to me speaks to the volume and her ability of her coaches and her to implement that game plan and to see that opportunity,” she added.

After a solid opening round and several adjustment rounds for the former champion, Grasso's concluding sequence occurred. The boxing-based attacker found Shevchenko's wrestling to be problematic at first, but it wasn't enough after the fight got back to the feet.

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Grasso perfectly neutralised a poorly timed and short-range spinning wheel kick attempt, finding the back and ultimately working her way to the victory.

Carmouche also talked about a potential rematch between the two.

“I do think that Grasso is really skilled and I do understand that she studied it and she was able to capitalize on that but I think that’s a mistake Shevchenko won’t make again. So if that was the one chink that she saw in her armor, that won’t be there. She’s going to make sure that it’s gone the second time and while she let her get the best of her I don’t think she would do it a second time. I think Shevchenko will come out looking for blood and truly looking to hurt Grasso,” she added.

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What do you think of the take from Carmouche? Let us know in the comments below.

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