After nearly a year away from the sport, Zhang Weili returned in style to beat the brakes off Tatiana Suarez in what was supposed to be her toughest challenge to date.
Suarez has been described as the ‘female Khabib,’ but Zhang made her look average on the mat, stuffing or reversing her takedowns across five rounds and punishing her with relentless ground and pound in the process.
UFC CEO Dana White was extremely impressed with her victory, especially given the buzz on Suarez coming in.
“Lots of people were texting me saying ‘Weili loses tonight,’ and ‘It’s over,’ and that she was an underdog,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “I bet the casinos got murdered tonight because I’m sure a lot of people threw money on Tatiana.”
We bet the casinos were actually very happy — Suarez opened at +175 but so many bet on her to win that the line moved to -125 by fight night. All that money on Suarez went right into the pocket of sportsbooks. Hopefully bettors put a little more respect on Weili next time, because she deserves it.
“When you look at Weili, she’s one of the greatest of all time, the best female fighter in the sport right now,” White declared. “At the press conference Tatiana was talking about what she was going to do and what about her wrestling. Weili said ‘This isn’t a wrestling match, this is a fight.’ And she actually outwrestled Tatiana tonight.”
“An absolute stud, and such a huge, huge star in China for us. She trended number one like four times during fight week, 100 million views just on UFC platforms in China. And tonight she was trending number one in all the big territories for us. Huge star.”
White said he’d be speaking to Zhang and her team following the press conference about what was next and implied a champion vs. champion fight against flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko could be next.
“I love them both, maybe we’ll just have to find out [who’s the greatest],” he said. “It’s a possibility. Whatever [Zhang] asks me back there in the hallway, I’ll probably say yes.”
Zhang and her team have been talking about the possibility of a Shevchenko fight all week. Following her win, Weili confirmed she wanted the champ vs. champ superfight next but left it in the hands of the UFC to put together.
“Everything is about timing,” she told Full Send MMA. “So if there’s a good time for both of us to make this fight happen, it happens.”
