Weili Zhang Addresses P4P Standing, Potential Superfight Against Valentina Shevchenko

Weili Zhang currently has no peers when it comes to the strawweight division.

“Magnum” proved that yet again in the UFC 312 co-headliner, as she dominated Tatiana Suarez en route to a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph in Sydney on Saturday night. Heading into the bout, Suarez was tabbed as a favorite by oddsmakers in large part due to her wrestling prowess. Someone forget to tell Zhang, as she stuffed 14 of her opponent’s 15 takedowns while also outstriking Suarez by a considerable margin on the feet.

To hear her tell it, the Chinese standout will never grow tired of cleaning out her division — perhaps because there’s always more to learn.

“I think the biggest opponent to me is myself, so [even] if I stay in strawweight, if I fight different styles of opponent, I can still learn a lot from that,” Zhang said. “Eventually, to improve myself, that’s my ultimate goal. I see all my opponents as my teachers. I will learn from them and just make myself better and better.”

Still, after another dominant performance, talk quickly turned to how Zhang might fare against another one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best: reigning flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko. Zhang won’t force the issue, but she’s open to the possibility.

“Let’s talk with Dana [White] later, but I think everything is about timing,” Zhang said. “So if there is a good time for both of us to make this fight happen, it happens.”

White himself was also asked about the potential for a Zhang-Shevchenko superfight at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. He admitted that the pairing could be a “possibility” in the future.

“That’s a good one. I f—ing hate answering these questions because I love both of them. Maybe we’ll just have to found out,” the UFC CEO said in regards to the debate between Zhang and Shevchenko.

As for Zhang, pound-for-pound rankings aren’t a concern.

“To be honest, I don’t really care who is pound-for-pound No. 1 or No. 2,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter. What I care about is how can I just make myself better.”