Coach of Russian Victoria Dudakova Hasanali Gasanaliev in a conversation with assessed her physical form Valentina Shevchenko in the title fight against Mexican Alexa Grasso.
On Sunday, Shevchenko regained the UFC bantamweight title in her third fight against Alexa Grasso. Previously, the 36-year-old representative from Kyrgyzstan lost to her opponent after a submission due to a technique, and the girls’ rematch ended in a draw. Prior to the fight with Grasso, Shevchenko had made seven successful defenses of the UFC title.
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— What do you think about the third fight between Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso?
“Valentina did everything right and fought. She just wanted to get her belt back and that’s it, she executed the fight plan. But at the same time, she didn’t want to miss any punches, because Grasso is a Mexican boxer and Shevchenko didn’t want to miss her. And my main impression of the tournament in general: I don’t understand how you can perform at this level, but I don’t know what wrestling is. There is no protection against takedown, no work when working with one leg…
— Victoria Dudakova is better at trying to translate than former UFC champion Grasso?
— Vika is 100% cheaper than Grasso. Yes, she can die by herself. It turns out that Sean O’Malley and Grasso are so easily translated that I simply have no words. It seems that managers simply ask them to work more spectacularly and do not train for wrestling.
— Could you say that two of your students, young Asaf Chopurov and Victoria Dudakova, are better than two former UFC champions?
– Yes, I can definitely say that. It is harder to stand than to translate, but they are definitely better than the now former champions. This is our Soviet school, it will always be with us, we will fight better than them. Valentna walked basically with two legs, arm in arm, Merab with one leg did whatever he wanted with O’Malley.
— Don’t you think that Valentina Shevchenko has been eating sports and is no longer fighting so brilliantly?
“I think she herself understands that she doesn’t have many fights left.” Moreover, she just really wanted to take the belt and acted strictly according to the plan. She did everything as she was told. But at the same time, I haven’t seen her in this form for a long time. Physically, she gained strength, as if she started working with weights: her shoulders, back, and abs became different. And so – she simply does not take risks in battles, she wins on what she does well.
We know each other, we talked once. She is a wonderful girl, a good athlete, I wish her only good luck. Pavel Fedotov, her coach in America, invited me to shoot and eat. They have a lot of guns. Valentina’s favorite gun is a small Glock. We shot everything; they have quite a few guns in their collection. We had lunch, and he showed me the sights of Vegas. We will support them from the bottom of our hearts, “Gasanaliev told .
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Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
