Glendale — Former women’s flyweight champ Alexa Grasso put on a surprisingly dominant, in-your-face performance against Manon Fiorot at Noche UFC on Saturday.
Grasso (18-5-1), who launched the Noche UFC series in 2023 against Valentina Shevchenko and returned the following year, came out hot in the fight, and knocked Fiorot down in the opening frame. That left the French contender fighting from behind for the rest of the fight, with Grasso earning a unanimous decision nod in the end.
“I prepared very well. I trust in my team, everything we did, the strategy. And it worked,” Grasso told Cageside Press following the fight. “When everything is perfect, you just feel super-confident in there.”
Shevchenko, who Grasso had a trilogy with, is no longer champ at 125lbs. She’s vacated her title due to injury, with Natalia Silva vs. Wang Cong set to crown a new champion next month. Rest assured, Grasso will have her eye on the fight.
“I’ll be watching of course. It’s an important fight in my weight class,” she stated, adding “but you know, I always keep training, I trust in my work, and when the time comes, I’ll be ready.”
“Hopefully yes” was Grasso’s answer when asked if she perhaps put her name on the short list of contenders who could face the winner of Silva vs. Cong. Fiorot, ahead of Saturday’s Noche UFC, had revealed that the UFC had told her the fight was a title eliminator, though it was not officially billed as such.
Alexa Grasso also touched on the state of Mexican MMA, saying “it’s great. Everything we’re doing is just showing— you can see, this card. I thought it [Noche UFC] was just going to be one year, but it ended up happening the next and the next and the next. And I’m so happy that it keeps being a celebration every single year.”
As for inspiring other young Mexican fighters, “me, Brandon [Moreno], and other fighters right now, we’re older. It’s a job that has to keep going and going and going. Now you see the new generation of Mexicans, they’re amazing. They’re complete fighters. That’s the goal, to always open more doors.”
Watch the full Noche UFC post-fight press conference with Alexa Grasso above.