Alexa Grasso beats Manon Fiorot in Glendale and takes the title shot Fiorot had already claimed

Alexa Grasso beats Manon Fiorot by unanimous decision at Noche UFC, and the result flips the women’s flyweight picture. Fiorot arrived as the favorite, saying the winner would get the next title shot. Grasso dropped her in the first round, outworked her for three rounds and left Glendale with a 29-28 on all three scorecards and the strongest claim to the vacant belt.

Full event coverage: Noche UFC returns to Glendale for Mexican Independence weekend, headliner reshuffled but stars intact

Key takeaways

How Alexa Grasso beat Manon Fiorot

The knockdown that set the tone

Fiorot came in as the betting favorite and the fighter with momentum. Grasso took that away in the first round. Late in the frame, a right hand put the French fighter on the canvas, and from that moment the fight was played at Grasso’s speed.

What followed was not a brawl but a clinic in volume. Grasso threw fast, accurate combinations and did not slow down across three rounds. Fiorot kept pressing, as she always does, but she rarely found an answer to the hand speed in front of her, and the Mexican crowd grew louder with every exchange Grasso won.

Three identical scorecards

All three judges saw it 29-28 for Grasso. The margin on paper is one round, but the knockdown and the steady output made the decision feel clear inside the arena. For Grasso, fighting on Mexican Independence Day weekend, it was the best possible stage for the win.

A title shot changes hands

What Fiorot said before the fight

The stakes were set out loud. At the Noche UFC media day, Fiorot said the UFC had told her the winner would get the next title shot, and outlets reported the bout as a title eliminator. She was the one making the case, and she was the one expected to cash it.

Instead, the claim now belongs to Grasso. The former champion, who took the belt from Valentina Shevchenko in 2023, kept her post-fight words short: “I don’t talk too much, I just work hard. When it’s coming, it’s coming. I’ll get that belt back one day.”

Who she could face

The belt is vacant. Shevchenko is sidelined by injury, and Natalia Silva and Wang Cong fight for the title at UFC 332 in Salt Lake City on October 3. If the promise made before Noche UFC holds, Grasso faces the winner, a matchup analysts already place in early 2027.

I don't talk too much, I just work hard. When it's coming, it's coming. I'll get that belt back one day.
— Alexa Grasso, after her win at Noche UFC

What the loss means for Manon Fiorot

A second setback in three fights

For Fiorot the defeat hurts twice. She lost a close decision to Shevchenko in her first title fight, answered with a 74-second finish of Jasmine Jasudavicius, and was one win from a second chance. That chance has now moved to the woman who beat her.

Still near the top

The loss does not push her out of the conversation. She remains one of the division’s most dangerous strikers, and a flyweight division reorganizing around a new champion will need her. But the road back to a title fight is longer than it was on Friday, and it will likely go through another ranked opponent first.

Follow the flyweight title race with real numbers

Alexa Grasso’s full record, Manon Fiorot’s history and the current women’s flyweight rankings are in the FightHub app, updated after every event. Download it to follow the race to the vacant belt before UFC 332.