Valentina Shevchenko vs Taila Santos: Was It A Robbery?
Full Fight Analysis
Valentina vs Santos breakdown
Round 1 starts with Valentina taking the center of the cage looking to counter strike. Valentina is landing the harder strikes and counter striking very effectively. At the 4:26 mark she lands an excellent right hand as santos comes in. This is the most significant strike of the round. At the 3:20 mark santos blitzes in with a combo. All strikes miss. Valentina gets the under hooks and forces the fight against the cage where the fight remains until 1:54 when Valentina fails on a hip toss and santos falls into guard. Santos gets the back of Valentina and goes for multiple read naked choke attempts. None were necessarily close. With about 45 seconds left in the round Valentina is stuck in a body lock, but is able to twist and land big punches for the rest of the round.
Round 1 Score : Valentina controlled 3:06 seconds of the round. Landed really the only significant strike of the round. On the ground Valentina was able to land hard shots repeatedly to end the round. Santos had the most significant position of the fight and attempted multiple submission attempts. The submission attempts were the “closest” thing to moving toward ending the fight. I will give the round 10-9 to Santos. Very close round
Round 2 starts with more of the same. Valentina is controlling the standup range. At the 4:30 mark they engage. Valentina lands a nice left hand and Santos lands a nice knee as they clinch. It goes to the cage and Santos lands a nice takedown. On the ground Santos never advances position, never goes for a submission, and barely throws any strikes. Valentina is constantly working off her back. Throws her legs up multiple times to show the submission threat and is landing nice elbows and punches from bottom. As the round continues Valentina is doing a good job of controlling Santos and the ref stands the fighters up. Not much happens on the feet to score. Fighters clinch again and Valentina lands a takedown which gets reversed. Valentina goes for an armbar that fails. Valentina lands hard punches and elbows from bottom. Santos lands one elbow as the round ends
Round 2 Score: Much easier round to score. Only one fighter worked toward finishing the fight and doing damage. It doesn’t matter whether that fighter was on bottom or not. Quote from the official judging criteria “Top and bottom position fighters are assessed more on the impactful/effective result of their actions, more so than their position”. 10-9 Valentina
Round 3 starts with more of the same. Valentina getting the better of the striking. She lands a nice spinning kick to the body and that left hand again finds its target. Valentina landing leg kicks, initiates the clinch and lands a trip takedown. Santos instantly and easily gets back to her feet. On the feet Valentina lands that left hand again before getting clinched and pushed against the cage. Santos lands a takedown at the 1:48 second mark and instantly takes Valentina’s back. Santos is threatening with the rear naked choke and at one point she nearly has it locked in. Valentina fights the hands and Santos rides out the rest of the round on the back. An accidental headbutt in this round broke Santos orbital bone
Round 3 Score: despite Valentina controlling the fight standing for more than half the round, this is another easy round to score. The 1:48 seconds that Santos controlled on the ground were by far the most significant parts of the round. 10-9 Santos
Round 4 starts and Valentina really starts getting her striking going. Santos is clearly effected by the eye injury. Valentina lands the left hand, left body kick. Goes to the head with a kick that lands slightly blocked and the ref stops the fight for an accidental glancing groin shot. Seemed like a bad stoppage to me live and in rewatching I’m still not sure there was much to it. The champ is really starting to land some hard punches in combination now. Santos clearly effected by the eye. She shows heart and starts firing back a bit, but Valentina is clearly getting the better of the standup. With 18 seconds left Santos lands a takedown and is unable to do much with it
Round 4 Score: Easy round to score for Valentina. Got the better of the standup and landed the much harder strikes 10-9 Valentina
Round 5 Valentina continues to land hard on the feet and 45 seconds in seemed to have Santos hurt for a moment. Maybe not hurt, but at least overwhelmed with strikes and backed against the cage. Valentina shows poor figh iq and lands a hip toss. She gets reversed with in seconds of landing the toss. Santos on top with 4 min left. Santos again takes the back of Valentina and try’s for another rear naked. This one is not close. She is too high on the back and Valentina slips out to stand up. Valentina continues to land hard strikes on the feet. Valentina lands a takedown with 2:30 to go. Gets to half guard where she is unable to do much besides land pitter patter strikes. Seems to be thinking about an arm and shoulder choke, but nothing close. She finishes the fight on top.
Round 5 Score. Valentina out landed Santos, landed the harder punches and probably the most significant strikes of the fight in this round. Santos had one sub attempt that wasn’t close. Easy round to score for Valentina. 10-9 Valentina
Final Score 48-47 Valentina - It was clear that Santos was effected by the eye injury. With that said I do think Valentina was doing a good job defending subs and was dominating the standup. Most ground exchanges were initiated by Valentina as well. Eye injury or not I think this fight was tipping toward Valentina in rounds 4 or 5. She’s a seasoned striker who was starting to really find her range and open up. Either way if it effected her or not, this was no robbery and was a very clear victory for Valentina under the current judging criteria. Round one was the only round of the fight that was hard to score in my opinion! Let me know how you scored the fight in the comments! Scoring criteria included below
The Unified Rules Of Mixed Martial Arts
Scoring
The 10 point must system is defined as follows:
All bouts will be evaluated and scored by three judges. The 10-Point Must System will be the standard system of scoring a bout. Under the 10-Point Must Scoring System, 10 points must be awarded to the winner of the round and nine points or less must be awarded to the loser, except for an even round, which is scored (10-10).
**** as of 2017 Unified Rules ****
Effective Striking/Grappling shall be considered the first priority of round assessments. Effective Aggressiveness is a „Plan B‟ and should not be considered unless the judge does not see ANY advantage in the Effective Striking/Grappling realm. Cage/Ring Control („Plan C‟) should only be needed when ALL other criteria are 100% even for both competitors. This will be an extremely rare occurrence.
PRIORITIZED CRITERIA: Effective Striking/Grappling
“Legal blows that have immediate or cumulative impact with the potential to contribute towards the end of the match with the IMMEDIATE weighing in more heavily than the cumulative impact. Successful execution of takedowns, submission attempts, reversals and the achievement of advantageous positions that produce immediate or cumulative impact with the potential to contribute to the end of the match, with the IMMEDIATE weighing more heavily than the cumulative impact.” It shall be noted that a successful takedown is not merely a changing of position, but the establishment of an attack from the use of the takedown. Top and bottom position fighters are assessed more on the impactful/effective result of their actions, more so than their position. This criterion will be the deciding factor in a high majority of decisions when scoring a round. The next two criteria must be treated as a backup and used ONLY when Effective Striking/Grappling is 100% equal for the round.
Effective Aggressiveness
“Aggressively making attempts to finish the fight. The key term is „effective‟. Chasing after an opponent with no effective result or impact should not render in the judges‟ assessments.” Effective Aggressiveness is only to be assessed if Effective Striking/Grappling is 100% equal for both competitors.
Fighting Area Control
“Fighting area control is assessed by determining who is dictating the pace, place and position of the match.” Fighting Area Control” shall only to be assessed if Effective Striking/Grappling and Effective Aggressiveness is 100% equal for both competitors. This will be assessed very rarely.