Weili
Zhang at the moment has no friends in the case of the strawweight
division.
“Magnum” proved that but once more within the UFC 312
co-headliner, as she dominated Tatiana
Suarez en path to a clear-cut unanimous determination triumph in
Sydney on Saturday evening. Heading into the bout, Suarez was tabbed
as a favourite by oddsmakers largely as a consequence of her wrestling
prowess. Somebody neglect to inform Zhang, as she stuffed 14 of her
opponent’s 15 takedowns whereas additionally outstriking Suarez by a
appreciable margin on the ft.
To listen to her inform it, the Chinese language standout won’t ever develop bored with
cleansing out her division — maybe as a result of there’s all the time extra to
study.
“I feel the largest opponent to me is myself, so [even] if I keep
in strawweight, if I battle completely different kinds of opponent, I can
nonetheless study rather a lot from that,” Zhang mentioned. “Finally, to enhance
myself, that’s my final aim. I see all my opponents as my
lecturers. I’ll study from them and simply make myself higher and
higher.”
Nonetheless, after one other dominant efficiency, discuss shortly turned to
how Zhang would possibly fare towards one other one of many sport’s
pound-for-pound greatest: reigning flyweight queen Valentina
Shevchenko. Zhang gained’t power the difficulty, however she’s open to the
chance.
“Let’s discuss with Dana [White] later, however I feel every part is
about timing,” Zhang mentioned. “So if there’s a good time for each of
us to make this battle occur, it occurs.”
White himself was additionally requested in regards to the potential for a
Zhang-Shevchenko superfight at Saturday’s post-fight press
convention. He admitted that the pairing might be a “chance”
sooner or later.
“That’s a great one. I f—ing hate answering these questions as a result of
I really like each of them. Perhaps we’ll simply need to came upon,” the UFC
CEO mentioned regarding the debate between Zhang and Shevchenko.
As for Zhang, pound-for-pound rankings aren’t a priority.
“To be trustworthy, I don’t actually care who’s pound-for-pound No. 1 or
No. 2,” she mentioned. “It doesn’t actually matter. What I care about is
how can I simply make myself higher.”
