Alexa Grasso recently named potential opponents she would like to face if she gets past Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 306.
Grasso will put her women’s flyweight title on the line in a trilogy clash against Shevchenko in the co-main event at UFC 306 on Saturday at the Sphere in Las Vegas. While Grasso would ideally like to clear out the whole flyweight division, the Mexican isn’t looking past “Bullet.”
Currently the No.1 ranked women’s pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC rankings, Grasso named strawweight champion and No.2 ranked Zhang Weili Zhang as her dream opponent.
”Weili Zhang is my dream fight,” Grasso told Stake.com. “It will be one of my biggest fights to date. She is strong, powerful and well-rounded. She is a great fighter and I even heard she would love to test herself at 125, so I would love to welcome her.”
Currently on her second strawweight title run, Zhang has defended her strap with unanimous decisions against Amanda Lemos and Xiaonan Yan after winning it with a submission win over Carla Esparza. The Chinese star has also expressed interest in a move up to flyweight.
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As for Grasso’s own division, the champ has no difficulty deciding between two potential contenders. Grasso believes Manon Fiorot is clearly a more deserving title contender than former strawweight champ Rose Namajunas.
“I’m not the one who chooses these things. I think Manon Fiorot is more deserving of the title shot than Rose,” Grasso said. “She has been in the division longer and she has a bigger win streak. She was also next in line before she got injured, so I would like to fight Fiorot.”
After losing her strap to Carla Esparza, Namajunas moved up to flyweight where she suffered a unanimous decision loss against Fiorot in her divisional debut last year. “Thug” has since rebounded with consecutive unanimous decision wins over Amanda Ribas and Tracy Cortez.
Meanwhile, Fiorot hasn’t lost since her pro debut in 2018 and has seven UFC victories to her name. The Frenchwoman would probably have fought Grasso for the title already if she didn’t injure her arm in her unanimous decision win over Erin Blanchfield this past March. While Grasso also has double champ aspirations, her friends in other weight classes are hindering those plans. Strawweight Loopy Godinez and Bantamweight Irene Aldana both train with Grasso at Lobo Gym MMA in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. As the gym wants to plants a champ each in all the divisions, Grasso’s double-champ plans will have to wait.
“I would love to be a two weight-world champion, it is such a big question and goal for me,” Grasso said. “However, I have friends in the upper weight classes such as Loopy Godinez in the strawweight division and Irene Aldana in the bantamweight division, and our team’s goal is to all be champions in each of our weight classes, so I would have to pause that dream for now.”
