Scouting Report: Alexa Grasso

The Lobo Gym MMA export will toe the line with Viviane Araujo Saturday in Las Vegas at UFC Fight Night 212.

Alexa Grasso

Born: Aug. 9, 1993 (Age: 29) in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Division: Women's Flyweight
Height: 5' 5”
Reach: 66”
Record: 14-3
Association: Lobo Gym MMA
Stage of Career: Still improving or in her prime

Summary: Grasso has a simple, yet effective style, with solid straight punches that she fires quickly and constantly. Aided by good cardio, she circles nicely around the cage and is hard to hit. She is also the rare fighter who chains kicks to punches, making her even more effective. However, her hands lack a degree of power, and her other punches, like the overhand right and left hook, are poor and lack effectiveness. Her grappling is mostly defensive -- yet clearly improving -- especially with regards to her Brazilian jiu-jitsu, capped off with a recent first-round submission of Joanne Wood.

STRIKING

Stance: Orthodox
Handspeed: Fast hands for 125 pounds, well above average.
Jab: Decent; correctly thrown and fast, if slightly weak and telegraphed.
Cross: Decent, with very similar properties to her jab.
Left Hook: Poor; an arm punch with virtually no rotation and an overly wide arc.
Overhand Right: Very mediocre, telegraphed and flopping her wrist weirdly.
Uppercuts: Doesn't throw them.
Solitary striker or volume puncher: Throws punches in bunches.
Favorite Combinations: The 1-2, which she is very solid at.
Leg kicks: A flawed mix bag; it solid mechanics and some impact, but not only does she sometimes pull a little early, robbing power; she is often very telegraphed with the blow and throws it naked, even being countered by the relatively slow Ji Yeon Kim.
Body kicks: A little above average, being fast and chained to her punches, but badly lacking power.
Head kicks: Rarely throws this.
Chains Kicks to Punches: Yes, often adding a leg kick to the end of her combinations, but which she pulls a little early, robbing it of even more power. Also chains body kicks to her combinations.

Grasso's boxing prowess is restricted to straight punches, which are technically solid and fast, if slightly lacking in power and often a bit telegraphed. To her credit, she throws them in bunches. Unfortunately, both her overhand right and left hook especially are poor punches with large technical defects. She is the very rare fighter who effectively chains kicks to her punches, which is excellent, but both her leg and body kicks could be better, the former being especially worrisome, as it's often thrown naked (by itself) and highly telegraphed, giving opponents plenty of opportunity to counter her with the cross. Has pretty good movement, circling well on the outside and above average defense.

CLINCH

Physical Strength: OK; able to hold her own against most, but definitely a little small at 125 pounds.
Technique: Decent, framing the opponent's head well and managing to turn opponents around into the fence or to get away, though there are some holes better grapplers have exploited.
Knees: Decent; fairly technical, fast, if not particularly damaging knees in the clinch, using a nice overhook to do so.
Elbows: Doesn't throw them.
Defense Against Knees and Elbows: Very good, rarely being hit by them, even by opponents known to be dangerous strikers within the clinch (such as Maycee Barber.)

Grasso would rather be at range striking, but she is no slouch in the clinch, and defends takedowns better there than at range thanks to some solid technique like framing the opponent's head or turning them around. She can also score with knees, which are fast and fairly technical, if lacking in power.

GRAPPLING

Wrestling from a Shot: Largely non-existent, as she avoids this.
Wrestling in the Clinch: Average; got an outside trip against Kim, pushed down Wood from a Thai plum, and created a wrestling scramble against Wood that she used to take the back with.
Takedown Defense: Slightly above average, and generally better in a clinch than at range.
Ability to get back to feet: Good; scrambles and kicks off the cage well, and while she gives up her back when getting up. Is athletic enough to turn into the opponent often.
Submissions: Clearly improving in her last two fights, but already at least OK, using a nifty armbar attempt to reverse Barber and take her back, and most recently finishing Wood with a RNC, very nicely switching arms in the process.
Defense and BJJ from the bottom: While good at getting up and able to use submission attempts to get out, if she is stuck on the bottom, she is highly vulnerable to ground-and-pound.
Top control: Very very limited, simply allowing the opponent too much space, and not controlling the hips or wrists, or tracking them well.
Ground-and-pound: OK, throwing punches at a steady clip, and even going body-head at times, although she only puts part of her body into the blows.

Grasso's biggest improvement in recent fights has been her grappling. Defensively, she can be taken down, but is highly adept at getting back up. While she exposes her back a lot in doing so, she is athletic and good enough at scrambles to almost always get away with it. If she is stuck on the bottom, however, she is weak to ground-and-pound. However, her offensive grappling has been getting a lot better. She can use submission attempts from the bottom to reverse position, and either get opportunistic takedowns or create scrambles on the feet which she can win. From there, she has OK ground-and-pound but also showed she can finish with a nice rear-naked choke in her last fight against Joanne Wood.

INTANGIBLES

Athleticism and general physical strength: OK; definitely small at 125 pounds and might be out-muscled by stronger opponents, but can hold her own against most and has solid agility.
Cardio: Great at 115 pounds, but might have worsened to only pretty good at 125 pounds, as she slowed down a little in Round 3 of a pure kickboxing contest against Kim and then more considerably in the third frame of a more energy-intense fight against Barber.
Chin: At least good, tanking some hard, flush connects from Barber.
Recuperative Powers: At least decent, but we've never even seen her hurt.
Intelligence: Poor fight IQ, with some awful tactical blunders in her fights, like turning into the crook of Suarez's arm when flustered, making the rear-naked choke successful, or calmly allowing a stunned Carla Esparza to recover, costing her the fight.