The UFC will celebrate Mexican Independence Day with a UFC Fight Night event headlined by a women’s flyweight championship bout.
Alexa Grasso will defend her 125-pound championship against former champion Valentina Shevchenko on Sept. 16 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White announced on Wednesday. Additionally, former middleweight title contender Kelvin Gastelum will make the move to welterweight to face Shavkat Rakhmonov.
Grasso (16-3) won the flyweight championship in an upset submission win over Shevchenko in March. Fighting out of Guadalajara, Mexico, Grasso, 29, has won five in a row and is the No. 4-ranked pound-for-pound women’s fighter in the world, according to ESPN.
Shevchenko (23-4) is the most dominant flyweight champion in UFC history, having defended the belt seven times before losing to Grasso.
Rakhmonov (17-0) is likely to be favored against Gastelum (18-8), who hasn’t fought at 170 pounds since 2016. Gastelum missed weight for a welterweight bout against Donald Cerrone in late 2016 and was forced to move up to 185 pounds. He is 5-6 in the middleweight division since, but recently…
