5 Defining Moments: Alexa Grasso

On Jan. 17, 2020, Alexa Grasso announced via Instagram her intention to leave the strawweight division and move up to compete at flyweight. It has turned out to be a good move so far, and on Saturday in Las Vegas, she might end up vindicating it as a brilliant one.

Of course, at the time Grasso made that post, it may have been the only move. Just hours before, at the official weigh-ins for UFC 246, she had missed the strawweight limit by five and a half pounds, forcing the cancellation of her scheduled matchup with Claudia Gadelha. Having lost two of her last three fights, and now having missed weight for the second time in the UFC, she elected to make a fresh start.

Almost three years later, as she prepares for her main event matchup with Viviane Araujo at UFC Fight Night 212 this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Grasso is on the cusp of title contention in her new division. She is a perfect 3-0 at 125 pounds, and the only thing that has been able to slow her momentum is a mind-boggling litany of fight postponements and cancellations. While Grasso’s move to flyweight was mainly a concession to her changing body, it also took her out of the static strawweight division, where the same five women have been playing keep-away for eight years now, passing the belt back and forth between them to the exclusion of other contenders, and brought her to the comparatively wide-open spaces of flyweight, where anyone who hasn’t yet faced Valentina Shevchenko is probably no more than four wins away from a title shot. This weekend, Grasso will look to make it four straight and test that axiom.

As she prepares for her moment of truth at “UFC Vegas 62,” a look at five moments that have defined Grasso’s career to this point:

1. Bienvenida a Invicta

Barely 21 years old and just 4-0 as a professional, Grasso got the call from Invicta Fighting Championships. Her debut with the promotion, at Invicta FC 8 on Sept. 6, 2014, was also her first time fighting outside her home country. She acquitted herself admirably, beating up a game Ashley Cummins to sweep all three rounds on all three judges’ scorecards. That win aged well, as Cummins went on to become a fixture at strawweight and a two-time Invicta atomweight title challenger, but even at the time, Invicta president Shannon Knapp likely knew she had something special in the young woman from Jalisco.

2. Coming Home in Style

In Fall of 2016, Grasso was 8-0 and looking like a potential next challenger for Invicta strawweight titleholder Angela Hill, when the Ultimate Fighting Championship came calling. While the 23-year-old Grasso might have benefited from additional seasoning in Invicta, the UFC’s decision to sign her when it did clearly took place into account, as well as timing. In a neat bit of symmetry with her Invicta tenure, Grasso’s Octagon debut was also her first fight back in Mexico. It took place on Nov. 5, 2016, in Mexico City at UFC Fight Night 98 (which doubled as the finale of “The Ultimate Fighter Latin America” Season 3), and while events would soon show that she had probably been plucked out of Invicta a little early, things could not have gone much better on that night. Grasso defeated Heather Clark in the main card opener in a fun scrap, to the deafening approval of the crowd. The UFC had not only a promising prospect on its hands, but a budding star.

3. Perfect No More

After her sensational UFC debut, Grasso was a hot commodity for the promotion, as one of the youngest fighters on roster, an undefeated prospect, and perhaps most importantly, a potential key figure in courting the Latin American market. As such, Grasso’s sophomore outing against Felice Herrig at UFC Fight Night 104 saw her promoted all the way up to the co-main event. Unsurprisingly, the fight was booked in Houston, Texas, a UFC-loving metropolis with an enormous Latino community. The stage was set for another star-making moment, but Herrig had other plans in mind than being a stepping stone for “the Mexican Ronda Rousey” some observers expected Grasso to become. As a fighter of moderate skill but plenty of physical strength, veteran savvy and grit, the aptly nicknamed “Lil Bulldog” was too much for the younger woman that night, and defeated Grasso by competitive, but clear, unanimous decision.

4. That’s How the Cookie Crumbles

By the time she met Carla Esparza at UFC Fight Night 159 on Sept. 21, 2019, Grasso was no longer seen as the next big anything. She had settled in as a competitive and entertaining roster fighter, but she was 2-2 in the UFC, and one of those wins, her split-decision nod over Randa Markos, had been marred by Grasso missing weight. She was once again in a co-main event, but this time it was due more to the card being in Mexico and Esparza’s status as a former champ than Grasso’s own competitive or promotional standing. Esparza and Grasso more than justified their card placement, with Grasso coming up just barely short in a wildly entertaining scrap that won “Fight of the Night” honors. The loss has aged incredibly well, as Esparza went on to win her next four fights and recapture the strawweight belt. In fact, Grasso may have come closer to beating “Cookie Monster” than any of those other four, including two-time former champ Rose Namajunas. Nevertheless it went down as a loss and, thanks to the colossal weight miss at UFC 246, it ended up being Grasso’s last fight at strawweight.

5. Weighty Choice

The weigh-in fiasco at UFC 246 was a major turning point for Grasso. Though it is possible the UFC might have forced her hand anyway, Grasso was proactive, sending out her announcement the same day, along with a contrite apology to the fans, the company and especially to Gadelha, who was left with no opponent and no time to find one. Since then, she has won three straight, has been the picture of professionalism on the scale, and enters her headlining assignment this weekend as the subjective A-side, the betting favorite and the one who is more likely assured of a title shot if she wins. For a woman who is still not even 30 years old and has been written off more than a few times as a bust, it is a remarkable story of redemption and reinvention, one she is still writing.