Taila Santos gave Valentina Shevchenko a run for her money. Taila went the distance with Shevchenko and somehow even lost round 1 on a judges scorecard.
Taila Santos went in as a big underdog – and managed to take the back of Shevchenko and push her into a corner in all of round one.
Santos was looking to neck crank her way to an injury. Shevchenko did her best to survive the round.
TO Shevchenko’s credit she defended well from the back and even threatened submissions.
While second round was a toss up – third had a really unfortunate byproduct. An unintentional clash of heads in round 3 ended up closing the right eye of Taila Santos. Santos copped after the fight to not being able to see out of the eye.
The ref paused the action a little later.
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In rounds 4 and 5, Shevchenko rallied for a comeback. Her corner was very concerned after round 3 and had ominously told her she knows what to do.
Round 5 was the key. Shevchenko delivered a takedown and controlled Taila Santos on the ground. Santos struggled to get up and was dealing with a lot of eye issues.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t really see out of my right eye after it closed. I saw two Valentinas, I just tried hit in the middle.” she said afterwards.
Scorecards are something worth talking over – with one of the judges giving the bout 49 46 to Shevchenko despite underwhelming round 1.
Official Result: Valentina Shevchenko def. Taila Santos by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 49-46)