Valentina Shevchenko uploaded a photo of herself wearing a blue dress.
Valentina Shevchenko is questioning the actions of referee Jason Herzog following her loss of the flyweight championship to Alexa Grasso at UFC 285. Shevchenko does not regret her failed spinning back kick that led to her submission but suggests that some of Herzog’s actions during the fight may have contributed to her fatigue in the fourth round. She also mentions instances in her previous fight with Taila Santos where she felt Herzog’s decisions were questionable. In particular, she cites his choice to stand them up while she was in top position on the ground and landing big shots over her opponent. She believes these actions could have affected her performance and contributed to her loss.
It’s hard to say I shouldn’t throw that spinning back kick,” Shevchenko said Monday on The MMA Hour. “It’s a very powerful kick. It’s a very strong kick. I’ve done so many knockouts with this spinning back kick. It’s just the situation. It’s the fourth round and you feel not as fresh as the first round, and some actions of the referee could have provoked this tiredness that I felt during the fourth round. It’s the situation.
“Definitely it’s an error, it’s a mistake, but at the same time, it’s hard to say, ‘Oh my God, this is huge, huge mistake.’ Definitely it’s huge because it’s a loss, but it’s not something that I cannot deal [with, or] will bring me so much down and I will be upset.”
Generally regarded as one of the best referees in MMA, Herzog has been the referee for both of Shevchenko’s most recent fights — and the former champion isn’t particularly happy with his performances.
“You asked me how I felt during the fight, and now, thinking about that, I think some kind of small situation, like what happened in the fight could affect performance, or how you feel,” Shevchenko said. “For example, before right now, I never thought about this, but it’s very clear in my mind, a few actions that the referee did in the fight, I completely don’t understand why he did that. Because he was refereeing my two last fights, and first fight, with Taila [Santos] in Singapore, I thought it could be the situation or something like this, but there was a combination where I strike and ended the combination with a head kick, and I felt Taila [got hurt] and I wanted to finish the fight, but he stopped the fight and he let her breathe. I was like, ‘OK, this doesn’t sound right, but maybe it was just the situation.’
“But in this fight, we were on the ground position, I was in her guard and landing big shots over her, and he just decided to stand us up and continue the striking. It’s kind of the same situation where I say it could affect the fighter, what they do to take their opponent down. They spend so much energy to [score a] takedown first, and second to hold them down, and when you [get a takedown] you definitely want to use the situation because you spend so much energy. And when it was decided, ‘Oh no, in my opinion you don’t have to be there. You have to fight in the stand-up,’ it’s kind of working against you because it affects your performance, because you have to build the situation all over again.”
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