White: Grasso-Shevchenko trilogy 'right thing to do'

Warning: Story contains coarse language

UFC CEO Dana White said Tuesday that the promotion will book a trilogy bout between flyweight champion Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko following their controversial second fight Saturday.

"You have to do the rematch," White said, according to MMA Junkie's Danny Segura and Ken Hathaway. "We will rematch them. It's the right thing to do. It's the fight that needs to happen."

Grasso retained her title in the main event of Noche UFC. It was ruled a split draw due to judge Mike Bell's 47-47 scorecard, which included a questionable 10-8 mark for Grasso in the fifth.

Junichiro Kamijo scored the fight 48-47 to Grasso. Meanwhile, Sal D'Amato gave the same mark but for Shevchenko, who would've won if Bell had scored the final round a 10-9 for Grasso like the two other judges.

"I was on vacation when this thing happened," White said. "When I found out one of the judges scored it 10-8, this guy should be f-----g investigated for this. This is the craziest s--t I've ever seen in my life.

"As I was talking to people, there's a seminar tomorrow with the athletic commission on 10-8s. Especially with a title fight, there's so much at stake in a title fight. It’s more than just money, show and win, pay-per-view, championships, and legacies.

"It's just you have to have the best of the best in title fights. They've assured me this guy isn't a bad guy. He just f----d up and made a mistake. It's unfortunate. There's no way in hell that was a 10-8 round."

With Shevchenko set to undergo surgery after suffering a hand fracture, White didn't give a timeline for booking the trilogy fight. However, he expects the 35-year-old to resume striking in three months.

Grasso previously stunned Shevchenko via submission in their first meeting in March, ending the all-time great's nine-fight winning streak that included eight title-bout victories.