In the UFC 312 co-main event on Saturday night, Zhang Weili once again showcased why she is arguably the greatest strawweight fighter of all time, dominating Tatiana Suarez.
Following her historical title defense against Yan Xiaonan at UFC 300 last April, Zhang Weili was booked to fight the undefeated Tatiana Suarez in the UFC 312 co-main event.
Coming into this fight, ‘Magnum’ was written off by a lot of the UFC fanbase as she went into the fight as the underdog for the first time since her 2019 fight against Jessica Andrade.
Despite that, the Chinese superstar went on to utterly dominate Suarez, handing her the first loss of her career.
Zhang Weili wants to move up to flyweight to take on Valentina Shevchenko
Suarez has always been widely regarded as a guaranteed future champion and her dominant wrestling is the type of fight style that has taken over in MMA.
Despite that, the 35-year-old champion showcased her complete well-roundedness by dominating the American on the mat, as well as getting the better of the striking exchanges on the feet.
In round two, Suarez suffered a bizarre injury when she cut her leg against the cage after Weili attempted a takedown, leaving a massive gash on her knee.
With Weili once again showing the gulf in class between herself and the rest of the division, it leaves her with minimal options going forward.
Earlier this week, the 35-year-old admitted that if it was up to her, she would move up to flyweight for her next fight to attempt to capture a second belt against Valentina Shevchenko.
“Let’s talk with Dana later but I think everything is about timing. If there is a good time for both of us to make this fight happen, it happens,” Weili reiterated during the post-fight press conference.
Dana White open to the idea of Zhang Weili vs Valentina Shevchenko
Despite there being no clear options for Zhang at strawweight next, ‘Bullet’ Shevchenko was seemingly set to take on number one contender, Manon Fiorot next.
However, UFC boss, Dana White was extremely impressed by Weili’s UFC 312 performance, touching on how big of a star she has become for the promotion.
“I don’t know about you guys or how you felt but lots of people were texting me saying that Weili loses tonight and that it’s over and that she was an underdog, I bet the casino’s got murdered tonight.
“When you look at Weili, she’s one of the greatest of all time, the best female fighter in the sport right now… Such a huge, huge star in China for us, she trended number one like four times during fight week, 100m views just on UFC platforms and tonight she was trending number one in all the big territories,” he said in the post-fight press conference.
With that in mind, White has hinted that he is open to a champion vs champion fight between Weili and Shevchenko.
“They’re waiting for me,” White said regarding Weili’s team.
“I f—— hate answering these questions (regarding who is the female pound-for-pound number one) because I love them both, maybe we’ll just have to find out. It’s a possibility. Whatever she asks me back there in the hallway, I’ll probably say yes.”
Shevchenko is currently ranked number one in the women’s pound-for-pound list, however, the rankings are set to update on Tuesday and Weili’s performance may have been enough to knock her off the summit.