Noche UFC: Can Alexa Grasso beat Valentina Shevchenko twice? - ESPN

UFC women's flyweight champion Alexa Grasso will defend her title in a rematch against former champ Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of Noche UFC at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+, with prelims at 7 p.m. on ESPN+).

Grasso, No. 3 in ESPN's women's pound-for-pound rankings, beat Shevchenko to claim the title at UFC 285 in March. Shevchenko, who is just ahead of Grasso in the P4P rankings, was on a nine-fight win streak before losing to Grasso.

Marc Raimondi spoke to UFC strawweight Angela Hill to get her perspective on the UFC main event and women's flyweight contender Erin Blanchfield offered her analysis to Jeff Wagenheim. ESPN betting experts Reed Kuhn and Ian Parker add their insights and analysis on the main event and other intriguing bets they like on the card.

Editor's note: Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

How Grasso wins: Doing a lot of what she did in the first fight, including the stance-switching and the 1-2s down the pipe. That tripped up Shevchenko. One thing I know, from training with one of my coaches who has held pads for Grasso, she has a ridiculous amount of power. When you fight someone like that, you can be a little shaken when the first punch connects. Grasso's pressure was excellent the last time, moving in and out, jabbing and then switching the stance to keep Shevchenko guessing. I also liked that Grasso mixed in the takedown attempts in the fourth round. I think even when those don't work, just the fact that she's level-changing is going to stuff a lot of what Valentina tries to throw back at her.

How Shevchenko wins: Keep everything fast and aggressive. She didn't feint that much in the first fight, and I don't think she usually does