MMA Event Breakdown - UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs. Shevchenko 2
UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs. Shevchenko 2
Tonight is no average UFC fight night. Instead, it is a celebration of Mexican Independence- UFC Noche- an evening of UFC highlighting Mexican fighters and the growth of mixed martial arts in Mexico. In the main event, the only remaining Mexican Champion Alexa Grasso defends her UFC Flyweight Title against the long reigning champion from whom she wrested the belt, Valentina “The Bullet” Shevchenko. There are many Mexican fighters being showcased as well as American fighters of Mexican heritage, so the T-Mobile Arena is sure to be rocking on Saturday night. Let’s begin with a strawweight clash between two UFC debutants.
Josefine Knutsson vs. Marnic Mann
Fight Odds: -750 Knutsson vs. +500 Mann
Weight Class: 115lb. (Women’s Strawweight)
Josefine Knutsson is a recent Dana White Contender Series winner who has the unfortunate distinction of not immediately receiving a contract from Dana White. Knutsson dominated her fight against Isis Verbeek but she was unable to close the show with a finish. This card has undergone many changes and Knutsson was brought in as a replacement fighter but needed her own replacement after Iasmin Lucindo was pulled from the card. Enter Marnic Mann, another DWCS veteran who had the unfortunate distinction of losing to Bruna Brazil as a short underdog on DWCS via vicious head kick knockout, not something you see very frequently in the women’s strawweight division. Mann rebounded with one low level regional win and she does have a purple belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu but her training situation with Montana Mixed Martial Arts seems inferior to All-Stars MMA, the Swedish super camp where Knutsson trains. I expect Knutsson to have the edge on the feet, in the clinch, in the conditioning, and potentially even the grappling. Knutsson has shown IQ lapses like kneeing a grounded opponent regionally, but barring a catastrophic mistake on the mat or a DQ, I think Knutsson should be able to get the win and the attritional submission in this spot.
Prediction: Knutsson defeats Mann via SUB2/3