Continuing our theme from yesterday, another fight that needs to be booked immediately is Weili Zhang vs Xiaonan Yan for the Strawweight title. Both women are absolute savages. Weili has been on a tear since her losses to "Thug" Rose. However, so has Xiaonan Yan and she believes that she should have been granted Weili's opportunity to face Carla Esparza. Yet, the way the cookie crumbled she should now have the opportunity to face Weili for the title. Yan has also said she has no beef with Weili, but she does want to fight her. Yan is 3-2 in her last 5 while Weili is also 3-2, but she lost to the same woman twice. Only Namajunas has Zhang's number. Is there a chance Yan can do the same? Yes, and especially after seeing her knock out Jessica Andrade in round one the other night, I didn't expect that. I still think Weili would win. Dana White said himself that at the post-fight UFC 288 press conference that he would be working on making this fight happen in China. He has also said that he's been working on Africa for years and said that they dropped the ball on Mexico after booking two of the three Mexican champions to fight in Vegas.
It would be pretty cool for the people of China and especially Weili Zhang and Xiaonan Yan to be able to fight in front of a Chinese crowd. With the current global/political climate it honestly feels super unlikely even though the financial benefits that come with going to China would be huge for the UFC. Another plus China has is that Israel Adesanya is a huge star in China, I imagine Alex Pereira was as well considering it was the birthplace of their rivalry. It seems like they're not finished with each other based on Twitter for the last month. They both keep referencing how it's 1-1 in UFC. For Izzy, he's saying the score is settled. For Poatan, he wants a definitive winner in the UFC, especially considering he's 2-0 in kickboxing against Adesanya. One of their fights actually occurred in China, I see no reason why Pereira Adesanya 3 (5) wouldn't be a perfect headliner because unfortunately, Zhang vs Yan as a headliner might not sell well in the US. It almost makes too much sense.
It would really bug me if Dana pulls something along the lines of saying they fumbled the bag with China and Weili is going to fight Rose for the third time after Rose has just been sitting and waiting after not throwing a punch against Carla Esparza just a year ago. It could take a while before we see any news on this fight, but hopefully the UFC fumble the bag.
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