Yes, Alexa was absolutely getting outhustled in the stand-up early but it's not like she wasn't landing anything at all and she never got rocked, either. In those final 1:30, she threatened the sub but more importantly had Valentina's back landing some nasty GnP which at one point had Valentina on her side, shelling up. Shevchenko did well to fight the hands during the choke attempts and avoid eating anything too massive on the mat, but what Grasso did in those final 1.5 minutes was far more impactful than anything Valentina did to Alexa in the minutes prior on the feet. Think of it this way: at any point that Valentina was out-striking Alexa early, did you ever think she was going to finish the fight? Because I didn't. I thought -- and hoped -- that she would coast to an easy Decision at her rate, but she never gave me any inclination that she would or could hurt Grasso to get her out of there. Conversely, for those final 1.5 minutes Valentina was effectively in survival mode: defensive and reactive, attempting to prevent a fight-ending sequence. Duration is only one scoring metric, after all.
I think Round 5 was close, don't get me wrong. But I favor the immediacy of Grasso's work and its potential to stop the bout over Shevchenko's steadiness and cumulative impact -- a notion which is supported in the Rules. 10-8 worthy? Not by any stretch of the imagination. But I think Grasso did enough -- largely because it wasn't just empty "ground control". For what little it's worth, 90% of 1154 fans who have submitted scorecards to MMADecisions saw it the same way. Even all the media outlets I bothered to look at who scored the fight (for or against Grasso) say they saw Round 4 as the swing round, not Round 5.