Nevada State Athletic Commission investigates scorecard for UFC's Grasso vs.Shevchenko

UFC's Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko fight on September 16th had a very controversial ending as the tight split draw ended up favoring the champion Alexa Grasso, however, the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) executive director Jeff Mullen himself criticized one of the scorecards, which ended 10-8 in favor Alexa Grasso and giving her the match.

The NSAC director weighed in claiming that he disagreed with the scoring of judge Mike Bell, a well-known figure who regularly participates on most of the UFC's major cards and also who scored the final round 10-8 in favor of the Mexican, in the round in which she most clearly dominated her opponent the final score was 47-47.

Judge Sal D'Amato scored the fight 48-47 for Shevchenko, and Judge Junichiro Kamijo scored the fight 48-47 favoring Grasso. During the meeting, Mullen and the Nevada judges discussed all five rounds, and going into the fifth round, all the judges, including Mullen, agreed that it should not have been a 10-8.

The general consensus agreed that the correct score should have been 10-9 for Grasso in the fifth, as D'Amato and Kamijo scored it, and if that third card had been identical, Shevchenko would have regained her championship.

It did not take long for the challenger to question the scorecards and Shevchenko addressed this situation at her post-fight press conference and continued the conversation on social media.

Dana White says a third fight is the fairest thing to do

On Tuesday night, after the Contender Series, UFC president Dana White also said he was unhappy with the verdict and said a third fight would be the right thing to do.

"There has to be a rematch. We face her again. It's the right thing that the fight should happen," he said.

White added: "When I found out a judge gave him 10-8, he should be investigated for that. It's the craziest sh*** I've ever seen in my life (...) It's one of the best in title fights. I've been assured he's not a bad guy. He just made a mistake. It's unfortunate. There's no way it was a 10-8 round."

However, White mentioned that they must wait for Shevchenko to recover from surgery on the thumb of his right hand, which he injured during the first round of the fight.

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