Is Zhang here to stay?

We'll see. She may just be another champ who starts partying and drinking nothin but Coronas all day. But I'd say she's here to stay.
My girl is Chinese, and Chinese girls don't fuck off like western women. They're driven, hard-working; usually. Such is the culture. So don't expect her to just throw it away. She's here to stay.


PLUS she has huge power in everything she throws. She's refreshing for a woman fighter.
 
Zhang will hang around the UFC but not as champ. Zhang was ranked #15 when facing Tecia Torres, got bumped up to #6 after that win and was given a title shot in her home country... It worked out just how Dana wanted it to.

Joanna will regain her belt and hopefully get to defend it against Suarez. Zhang will hang around the top 5.
 
I have not seen anything to suggest that Suarez gets beaten "badly" by everyone, she suffered a neck injury in the first round against Nina and still won. She has been out since that fight with the injury, she's hands down the best wrestler in the division, we don't know how anyone will handle her style. The SW top 5 is the most competitive top 5 in the UFC, you say that SW isn't even top 5 which is a joke, please name a division that has a more competitive top 5 where multiple fighters can realistically beat the champ and also name your 5 divisions that you see as better.

Off the top of my head, LHW has Jones and no one else, LW has Tony and Khabib, that's it. Conor, Dustin and Justin are not on Khabib's level. WW is just Usman, Colby and maybe Leon. No one beats Usman.

Suarez stand up is gonna cause her issues when she reaches the top 5. She can become champ though, and she is my favourite in the division.

Mens BW, FW, LW, WW and MW are all more competitive. HW is always chaos and anyone can beat anyone but that's not necessarily all based on skill so I wont include that.

LW wise, Tony could beat Khabib, Conor would be my heavy favourite against Tony and Justin, Tony v Justin is very interesting, as is Justin v Khabib.

You say no one can beat Usman, but Colby almost did, it was super competitive. Of all my divisional picks I'd say WW is the least competitive top 5 just because Usman is so damn good like you say. Rest of the guys I couldnt pick between.

BW goes without saying, it's one of my favourite divisions in the ufc. FW as well, we dont know exactly how good Zabit is yet. Korean zombie is back in the mix and although he lost against Yair, he was winning until 2 seconds left haha. I dont know if max can make the adjustments to beat Volk either. Certainly wouldn't put any money down on any of these match ups.

MW I think any of those guys can beat each other. Even Till v Izzy is an amazing fight. Same with Izzy v Romero, Costa or Cannonier. Yoel has had 3 super super close fights with 2 of the top 5. Same can't be said for SW.

SW is miles ahead of any other womens division though for sure, and the skillset there seems to be a lot higher than the others for whatever reason.
 
Joanna - Rose 2 was actually competitive.
Rose won because she landed the harder strikes, but she actually got outstruck and it's not like she came out unscathed either..

4 rounds to 1 on every judges scorecard.
 
I don't think so. I watched her fight against Tecia Torres. She does not look like a dominant champ. Tecia was lighting her up in the third round. Zhang won the fight but was by no means dominant.

weili-zhang-tecia-torres-ufc-235-11.jpg
To be fair, Torres is tough to look good against. She’s never been finished and has excellent cardio, so she’ll generally have her moments. Honestly, I think she’d be a contender if the UFC had an atomweight division.
The one concern I would take from that fight for Zhang would be that she seemed to slow down in the third. If she hasn’t fixed that, she’d better finish Jedrzejczyk in the first two rounds or she’ll have a rough night.
 
Remember when max supposedly cleaned out his division and should move to LW because there was no one else for him to fight?

Was that when he was the greatest FW of all time?
bucket
 
Was that when he was the greatest FW of all time?
bucket

Yep. After two defenses he was the greatest of all time and there was nobody else for him to fight at FW so he had to go up to LW and fight Dustin. Derp

As a huge fan of the FW division, that narrative annoyed me a lot.
 
Those rounds weren't exactly extremely in favor of rose though.
Trust me, it was a win for Rose, but it was competitive.

Yea I remember it being a clear win for Rose, but perhaps saying it wasn't very competitive is wrong on my part. Haven't rewatched it since I saw it live either. It felt like Rose was gonna be champ for a long time after that fight as well. Sucks that she lost against Andrade in that way.
 
Yea I remember it being a clear win for Rose, but perhaps saying it wasn't very competitive is wrong on my part. Haven't rewatched it since I saw it live either. It felt like Rose was gonna be champ for a long time after that fight as well. Sucks that she lost against Andrade in that way.
It's alright, i think the win for Rose was very deserved as well. Just wasn't the case that Jedrzejczyk hadn't anything to offer.

I hope both Rose and Joanna win their next fights, i like them both a lot and so it sucks that people are like "Joanna is shit she got knocked out by Rose lol" and "Rose isn't that good, she lost to Andrade who neither Joanna nor Weili had trouble with lol".
 
Yes I think she is.

In my opinion she's on a new level for WMMA and it's going to take some time for others to catch up.
She's so precise and technical in dishing out damage from her vast arsenal, not to mention so ridiculously fast. She's going to be tough to beat.
 
To be fair, Torres is tough to look good against. She’s never been finished and has excellent cardio, so she’ll generally have her moments. Honestly, I think she’d be a contender if the UFC had an atomweight division.
The one concern I would take from that fight for Zhang would be that she seemed to slow down in the third. If she hasn’t fixed that, she’d better finish Jedrzejczyk in the first two rounds or she’ll have a rough night.
That's a good analysis. She definitely slowed down and Tecia would have probably beat her in a 5 round fight. She has the power to finish JJ, but if she doesn't she might get picked apart in the later rounds. Joana can go hard for 5 rounds.
 
A lot of people are touting Weili as a potential dominant champion, saying she has both great technique and power, while her rivals only tend to have one or the other. However, before her fight against Andrade most people didn't even know her, but now she has a monumental amount of hype. Joanna is one of the greatest women's mixed martial artists ever, and picking Weili over her, who was basically an unknown before her title fight, seems foolish to a lot of other people.

Jessica was reckless and came in like a bull, whereas Joanna will no doubt be much more tactical and patient. Joanna is not all what she once was, however, and Zhang painted quite an imposing portrait of herself since that beatdown she laid on Andrade. It's not like she's inexperienced either, she actually has more fights under her belt than Joanna. Against weaker competition, sure, but obviously Zhang's no newbie.

I have to admit, I've got high hopes for Zhang. I'm picking her to win, but you can't count out someone like Joanna just because she was handed a few losses at the hands of Namajunas and Shevchenko, the latter of whom only Amanda Nunes has ever legitimately beaten. People have turned on her pretty quickly though, and somehow Zhang is the favorite to win this fight, despite the fact that Joanna is the division's most dominant fight by far, and a year ago no one knew Zhang's name. In any other situation this seems ridiculous.

What are your thoughts? Will Zhang become the dominant force many are predicting?
I like your post. I actually favor Double J in this one via her experience and gas tank. Zhang did a very impressive beat down on Andrade and if she does it on Double J , I will be sold but any champ who has not defended the belt doesn’t get goat status from me and Double J is absolutely the goat of that division so far.
 
It's alright, i think the win for Rose was very deserved as well. Just wasn't the case that Jedrzejczyk hadn't anything to offer.

I hope both Rose and Joanna win their next fights, i like them both a lot and so it sucks that people are like "Joanna is shit she got knocked out by Rose lol" and "Rose isn't that good, she lost to Andrade who neither Joanna nor Weili had trouble with lol".

I really think the weight cut played a huge part in JJs first loss against Rose as well. Rose definitely doesn't suck, in fact i think shes the best SW in the world still. I'd love to see her vs Zhang eventually.
 
A lot of people are touting Weili as a potential dominant champion, saying she has both great technique and power, while her rivals only tend to have one or the other. However, before her fight against Andrade most people didn't even know her, but now she has a monumental amount of hype. Joanna is one of the greatest women's mixed martial artists ever, and picking Weili over her, who was basically an unknown before her title fight, seems foolish to a lot of other people.

Jessica was reckless and came in like a bull, whereas Joanna will no doubt be much more tactical and patient. Joanna is not all what she once was, however, and Zhang painted quite an imposing portrait of herself since that beatdown she laid on Andrade. It's not like she's inexperienced either, she actually has more fights under her belt than Joanna. Against weaker competition, sure, but obviously Zhang's no newbie.

I have to admit, I've got high hopes for Zhang. I'm picking her to win, but you can't count out someone like Joanna just because she was handed a few losses at the hands of Namajunas and Shevchenko, the latter of whom only Amanda Nunes has ever legitimately beaten. People have turned on her pretty quickly though, and somehow Zhang is the favorite to win this fight, despite the fact that Joanna is the division's most dominant fight by far, and a year ago no one knew Zhang's name. In any other situation this seems ridiculous.

What are your thoughts? Will Zhang become the dominant force many are predicting?
Even if she loses, she's here to stay for awhile. At least until her work visa runs out.
 
Tough to say. She’s the champ in an extremely tight division, with a lot of potential contenders. She definitely got rushed to the title for promotional reasons. Also, we’ve never seen her cardio tested, and now she’ll be in potential five round fights.

far too many are counting out Joanna, mostly due to either Zhang hype or Joanna hate, but she’ll be the biggest test of Zhang’s career.

Also, keep in mind, Zhang is the only fighter in the UFC to get rocked by Danielle Taylor, which says something about her defense.
 
Joanna will smoke her. And i'm Joanna hater.
 
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