Weili
Zhang currently has no peers when it comes to the strawweight
division.
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“Magnum” proved that yet again in the UFC 312
co-headliner, as she dominated Tatiana
Suarez en route to a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph in
Sydney on Saturday night. Heading into the bout, Suarez was tabbed
as a favorite by oddsmakers in large part due to her wrestling
prowess. Someone forget to tell Zhang, as she stuffed 14 of her
opponent’s 15 takedowns while also outstriking Suarez by a
considerable margin on the feet.
To hear her tell it, the Chinese standout will never grow tired of
cleaning out her division — perhaps because there’s always more to
learn.
“I think the biggest opponent to me is myself, so [even] if I stay
in strawweight, if I fight different styles of opponent, I can
still learn a lot from that,” Zhang said. “Eventually, to improve
myself, that’s my ultimate goal. I see all my opponents as my
teachers. I will learn from them and just make myself better and
better.”
Still, after another dominant performance, talk quickly turned to
how Zhang might fare against another one of the sport’s
pound-for-pound best: reigning flyweight queen Valentina
Shevchenko. Zhang won’t force the issue, but she’s open to the
possibility.
“Let’s talk with Dana [White] later, but I think everything is
about timing,” Zhang said. “So if there is a good time for both of
us to make this fight happen, it happens.”
White himself was also asked about the potential for a
Zhang-Shevchenko superfight at Saturday’s post-fight press
conference. He admitted that the pairing could be a “possibility”
in the future.
“That’s a good one. I f—ing hate answering these questions because
I love both of them. Maybe we’ll just have to found out,” the UFC
CEO said in regards to the debate between Zhang and Shevchenko.
As for Zhang, pound-for-pound rankings aren’t a concern.
“To be honest, I don’t really care who is pound-for-pound No. 1 or
No. 2,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter. What I care about is
how can I just make myself better.”