Should UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Zhang Weili commit to a pursuit of more glory, she’ll have a big decision to make.
Zhang further enhanced her legacy at this past weekend’s pay-per-view in Sydney, Australia, where she co-headlined UFC 312 in defense of her title against undefeated challenger Tatiana Suarez.
The Chinese standout delivered one of the performances of her career to dominantly outpoint Suarez across five rounds, recording the third successful defense of her second title reign in the process.
Having established her superiority at 115 pounds, Zhang’s ambitions have begun to spread beyond that divisional realm and to the flyweight division, currently ruled by Valentina Shevchenko.
During an appearance on Monday’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Uncrowned, “Magnum” further addressed that possibility, revealing the UFC’s stance on the matter.
“I always wanted to go up one weight class, but it’s never good timing,” Zhang said. “For very quite a long time, I was a little bit confused, like, ‘OK, who should I fight? Because they all have their own arrangements and matches. But eventually it will work out with UFC because I really want to get a fight.’
“There’s no concrete plan or ask from our side just yet. I’m willing to fight Valentina, but again, timing has to be right. Everything has to play in our favor, then it could happen,” Zhang continued. “Anything works. If we ended up in the flyweight (division), then I don’t have to go through so much pain to cut weight. Why not? … UFC kind of wants me to, if I actually go up to 125 (pounds), just kind of stay in there — don’t move (back down) again. But that’s something I need to consider myself.”
Should Zhang choose against a permanent switch to 125 pounds and continue to defend the gold currently in her possession, it remains to be seen who will get the next shot.
It could well be a rematch lying in wait for “Magnum.” While Virna Jandiroba is deemed by many to have already earned an opportunity, she’ll first need to get past Yan Xiaonan at UFC 314 this coming April.