Valentina Shevchenko: Weili Zhang Has ‘A Lot Of Things To Prove’ Before Challenging Me
A very interesting superfight could be brewing in the women’s divisions of the UFC.
UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko has dominated at 125 pounds. If newly-crowned 115-pound champion Weili Zhang can muster up a dominant streak similar to that of Shevchenko, the UFC’s first-ever Chinese champion has expressed interest in jumping up to flyweight to challenge “The Bullet.”
However, according to Shevchenko, Zhang has a lot of work to do before she can make the jump up to her weight division and challenge for her crown. (H/T MMA Fighting)
“A few months ago nobody knew the name of the Chinese girl Weili,” Shevchenko said. “I don’t know what number she was but because of lucky circumstances she became champion but she still has to prove that she is in the right place and she’s there because no one is better than her.
“Because my opinion, she still has Joanna, she’s a very hard test for her. She has Rose [Namajunas] and she’s also a very hard test for her and she has Tatiana Suarez. So before she proves that she’s better than them, I think it’s not right to jump over the stairs. It’s not right.”
Both Shevchenko and Zhang have title defenses to prepare for at the moment. Shevchenko puts her title up for grabs against Katlyn Chookagian in the co-main event of UFC 247 next week. The pay-per-view (PPV) goes down from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
As for Zhang, she’ll put her strap up for grabs against former division queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk in the UFC 248 PPV co-main event. That show goes down in March. If Zhang can get a dominant win over Jedrzejczyk next month, it’ll be a good way to spark interest in an eventual superfight with Shevchenko.
“She has a lot of things to prove yet,” Shevchenko said. “I’m really open but I would say I would accept it with someone who will show that they are there [at the top].”
Do you want to see a clash between Shevchenko and Zhang down the line?
