By Cassandra Cousineau and Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Even before Zhang Weili distinguished herself with a strawweight world championship belt Aug. 31 and was a headliner for UFC 248 at T-Mobile Arena Saturday night, UFC president and starmaker Dana White knew Zhang was destined for the big time.
It’s hard to believe a guy who once didn’t think women should fight in UFC is now a leading voice for the women’s fight game. Just consider how White helped Ronda Rousey go from the Octagon to Hollywood and eventually came around to the fact that he knew he would have to lead the charge for gifted two-belt champion Amanda Nunes.
Last June, White came on a LVSportsBiz.com podcast and heaped high praise on the 30-year-old Chinese MMA fighter who fulfilled White’s hunch that she would be the first UFC champ from China a few months later.
LVSportsBiz.com also took the time to chat with Zhang on UFC 248 media day Thursday when she also praised White, saying he has a vision and it’s because of him that UFC is the world’s greatest MMA organization.
Zhang’s ascension comes at a ticklish time in relations between the U.S. and China, especially with the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus that health experts say started in China. The outbreak forced Zhang and two of her Chinese UFC teammates to re-locate to three different cities in two countries to train for her title defense at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas today.
Though soft-spoken, she’s cagey and no-nonsense when it comes to fighting.
The geopolitical consequences of the coronavirus situation hit home in a unique way when Zhang said her mother told her to toughen about the training moves, offering sage motherly perspective on the health crisis. “She told me to ‘just look at our country. People are dying. People are trying to care for their loved ones. And you’re just moving to a new location.’ ”
Her personality was on display Thursday at the UFC APEX building during her face-off with Zhang’s challenger tonight — former strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Zhang became annoyed by her challenger’s taunting. Plus, she didn’t appreciate Joanna’s previous chirping about the coronavirus.
So, Zhang told the Polish ex-champ, “Shut up.”
And before the square-off, Zhang told LVSportsBiz.com, “Don’t blink, I’m going to knock her out cold.”
There was no knockout, but Zhang did win the five-round fight in a split decision over Jedrzejczyk. The gate was $2,742,906.20 and attendance was reported as 15,077.
The Zhang-Joanna fight embarrassed the final bout of the night as middleweight champ Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero did little fighting and drew criticism on social media. Adesanya ended up retaining his middleweight belt amid the boos.
LVSportsBiz.com asked White about Zhang’s future with UFC, and the promotion’s president said Zhang will be pushed like UFC marketed Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor. White also said the fight event went over huge in China.
He said he would likely take Zhang to fight at Madison Square Garden in New York as the next step to market the Chinese fighter.
White also said he doesn’t want UFC to be the first combat event at the new Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium. He said he wants to bring the right UFC event to the new football stadium in Las Vegas.
White also said that the Conor-Khabib fight 2 would be the biggest in combat sports history.
Hmm, sounds like a UFC fight event worthy of the Raiders’ new football stadium in Las Vegas.
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