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UFC 300, a card that is expected to be one of the promotion’s biggest lineups of the year, has its first title fight officially scheduled. UFC CEO Dana White announced late Thursday evening that strawweight champion Zhang Weili will meet Yan Xiaonan in a title bout on April 13 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Zhang will be trying to defend her 115-pound division title for the second time since capturing it for the second time in late 2022. She picked up her first title defense last year, putting together a dominant unanimous decision win over Amanda Lemos at UFC 292.
Yan Xiaonan earns UFC title shot
Yan – a fighter who joined the UFC roster in 2017 and became the first-ever Chinese woman to sign with the promotion – will be competing in her first title fight. A strawweight title shot opportunity has been close to Yan for a while, but recently she finally did enough to convince the promotion to book a fight against Zhang.
Yan attained seven wins to start her run in the promotion, but had her hopes at a title shot slowed after suffering a pair of losses. In 2021, she was finished by Carla Esparza, who earned a title shot in her next appearance after that showing. She then lost a split decision to Marina Rodriguez, although the result was close, with many giving Yan the win.
A pair of big wins over the past couple of years regained momentum for Yan and earned her the UFC 300 title shot. In 2022, Yan defeated Mackenzie Dern to win her first five-round UFC bout.
She then returned with an emphatic win at UFC 288 last year, stopping former champion Jessica Andrade in the first round with a right hand.
What a Zhang Weili win would mean, by the numbers
In the short history of the strawweight division, nobody has attained the dominance that Joanna Jedrzeczyk once had with the title from 2015 to 2017. Really, not one person has even come close. While Jedrzejczyk defended the title five times, nobody else in the division’s history has defended their belt more than once, and no reign length has challenged her 966 days as champ.
While Zhang can’t break Jedrzeczyk’s title defense record or days as champion at UFC 300, she can take a step that will separate her from many of the champions over the near-decade-long history of the UFC strawweight division.
A win at UFC 300 will be Zhang’s second title defense, making her only the second champion after Jedrzejczyk to defend her title twice. A successful victory in April would also extend her title reign to 518 days. Assuming she won’t compete in the three months after her win at UFC 300, the victory will set her up to record the second-longest reign in the division’s history, surpassing Rose Namajunas’ first title run and Zhang’s 2019 to 2021 campaign.
UFC 300: A strong start, but a long way to go
UFC 300 is expected to be a large celebration of the promotion, as was UFC 100 in 2009, and UFC 200 in 2016. Promotional CEO White has hyped the card for weeks, mentioning that the entire lineup – from the first prelim to the main event – will “make people lose their minds.”
With the event three months away, the jury is still out on whether the card will live up to the massive hype that follows it. So far, it’s a strong card. Zhang versus Yan is a great start, as it’s a matchup between two skilled talents that the hardcore viewers will want to see. Along with the title fight, you have appearances from many former champs in pivotal matchups: Jiri Prochazka, Charles Oliveira, and Aljamain Sterling are all booked for the festivities. You have a star on the prelims in Bo Nickal, who will put his undefeated record on the line as well.
It’s a great-looking show, although there’s still a lot of work to do. Remember: Both UFC 100 and UFC 200 had two title fights, plus many other high-profile matchups. While UFC 300 is, as it stands, an entertaining-looking pay-per-view card, it’s going to need a few more big matchups before it can be at the level that many are hoping it will achieve.