While earlier this month UFC President (and now CEO) Dana White was quick to rip reporters who quoted him saying “I think you do the rematch, absolutely” about running Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland back, the promotion’s head honcho has come out and said something very similar about Noche UFC’s main event.
A baffling 10-8 awarded to Alexa Grasso in the fifth round of her rematch with Valentina Shevchenko left the fight scored a draw, and left MMA fans around the world scratching their heads. With that in mind, White says the trilogy fight will happen.
“You have to do the rematch,” White said following Week 7 of Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday (h/t MMA Junkie). “We will rematch them. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the fight that needs to happen, and yeah.”
White did not provide a timeframe for when the UFC would make the fight. Shevchenko is scheduled for surgery to repair a broken hand suffered early in Saturday’s rematch with Grasso, which came after Grasso dethroned the champ by submission back in March.
As for the 10-8 score awarded by judge Mike Bell to Grasso, White had a similar reaction to many of those watching.
“I was on vacation when this thing happened. When I found out one of the judges scored it 10-8, this guy should be f*cking investigated for this,” exclaimed White. “This is the craziest sh*t I’ve ever seen in my life.”
