Valentina Shevchenko is set to face Alexa Grasso for the third time at UFC Noche, but it wasn’t an easy decision. After their last bout ended in a draw, and Grasso claimed victory in their first encounter, Shevchenko admitted she had some hesitation about jumping into a trilogy fight. However, the opportunity to settle the score among other things convinced her to take the fight.
Shevchenko shared that the chance to compete at the UFC’s debut event at the Sphere was a huge factor in accepting the fight. But she also wanted to participate in the UFC’s new idea of promoting the fighting culture of a nation.
She hopes that this is not a one and done but rather a regular occurrence in the UFC from now on. The former champion in a recent interview with ‘Shak MMA’ shared her thoughts on the factors that convinced her to accept a third fight.
“Because it is kind of like it’s Noche, but I feel it is not Noche too because too much ingredients added. Actually I like this idea because with all this, showing off the culture of one country is such a cool thing. Maybe in the future the UFC will do the same thing for all other countries. I hope in the future there are going to be more countries involved in this.”
View this post on Instagram
UFC Noche is an ode to the fighting spirit of the Mexican nation according to Dana White.
Shevchenko loves the idea of promoting countries’ cultures through fight cards and wants it to happen more often. However, there is no indication that this will be a regular occurrence especially given the way UFC Noche is trending.
UFC Noche headed towards a massive failure?
Initially, when it was announced that the UFC was going to host an event at the Sphere, there was a lot of celebration from the fans. White further added to the hype by stating that it is going to be an event like nothing fans had ever seen.
Unfortunately, these claims came at a price for both the UFC and fans!
White and his team have spent over $20 million organizing the event, the costs were then pushed onto the fans with the cheapest tickets selling for $3,000.
The UFC has struggled massively to sell these tickets with a large number still remaining unsold. Over the past few days, the promotion has reduced prices multiple times in order to get the fans to snap up the remaining tickets.
So as of right now, things are not looking good for the UFC ahead of its debut at the Sphere at the moment. Although this was a seemingly predictable outcome.
There was no way that the UFC was going to compete against a Canelo Alvarez boxing match over the Mexican Independence Day weekend with a card that has Sean O’Malley headlining it. So as far as miscalculations go, this was a rather expensive one at over $20 million (what White claims to have spent on the arena).
