Shevchenko: Weili Zhang became UFC champion ‘because of lucky circumstances’

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“A few months ago nobody knew the name of the Chinese girl Weili,” Shevchenko told MMA Fighting. “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 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.”

https://www.mmamania.com/2020/2/3/2...c-champion-because-of-lucky-circumstances-mma
 
It is all about the money, honey. A Chinese star is exactly what the UFC wants and needs.
 
Zhang destroyed and finished an exciting champ while Valentina spars with soccer moms in a dead division. Who is the luckiest?
 
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“A few months ago nobody knew the name of the Chinese girl Weili,” Shevchenko told MMA Fighting. “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 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.”

https://www.mmamania.com/2020/2/3/2...c-champion-because-of-lucky-circumstances-mma
Schevchenko will get flamed for this because Weili is sherdogs current WMMA darling, but in a way shes right.

Zhang has had 1 title fight, and it was about a minute long. Hard to say whether she's the real deal or not yet.

Dont agree with getting there via luck though. Andrade is a tough fight and Zhang earned that belt. Let's see if she can keep it.
 
Weili's earned everything she's achieved but I'd prefer to see her defend the belt a few times before talking about a title shot at 125.
 
She has no right to be the champ as long as she hasn't cleaned out the division?
At least there is some competition at 115...
 
She's won 20 in a row, with four inside the Octagon including destroying the champ for the belt in 42 seconds. We'll know a lot more after her fight Joanna but regardless of how long the UFC has wanted an Asian champion lets not pretend she hasn't deserved her position.

Whilst Shevchenko is next defending against a girl who's 2-1 in her last three, whilst before that it was Liz Carmouche who was also only 2-1 in her last three & before that it was Jessica Eye who was a pitiful 3-4 in her last seven fights so not sure she should be dismissing other divisions or talking about lucky circumstances when that's the quality of opponents she's facing.
 
Joanna turned down the fight and who knows how long Suarez is out? Joanna turning down the fight meant she got her title shot sooner but she earned the belt by demolishing the legit champ.
Shevchenko's talking about clearing out the division which is a different thing.
 
Zhang destroyed and finished an exciting champ while Valentina spars with soccer moms in a dead division. Who is the luckiest?
Andrade's only asset is power. If she didn't have it, then she wouldn't be in the top 10. Zhang, who has both great technique and power, was a nightmare match-up for her.

Valentina has gone toe to toe with the best wmma fighter of all time. She easily beats any woman in the UFC not named Amanda Nunes, who she still has the potential to beat in a trilogy fight. Her belt is not the result of luck.
 
That's possible. We will certainly see in upcoming defense .I have no sample size of current champ to offer up that opinion.

Ironically, I always preach about " timing and circumstances " being such an enormous part of this sport. 100%.

Shev " might " be right but I cant see her saying this with such conviction. Shes is still on the side of " the unknown" and she does have belt so interesting comments from champ. We'll see.

I think of Bisping and Alvarez under these circumstances. In Eddie's case - ironically-, he was more a beast before his UFC tenure .He had a few " un impressive fights" leading to him having " the round of his life " against the scorching ( at the time) RDA. We all saw eddies fights after that. I even think he was a .500 fighter in UFC. Don't get me wrong, unlike Bisping, Alvarez is an all time lightweight great but not because of his run in mmas top promotion.
 
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“A few months ago nobody knew the name of the Chinese girl Weili,” Shevchenko told MMA Fighting. “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 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.”

https://www.mmamania.com/2020/2/3/2...c-champion-because-of-lucky-circumstances-mma
Absolutely correct. Zhang maybe the best ever but she hasn’t proved it yet. She should clear out her division before looking at a new one.
 
Valentina has gone toe to toe with the best wmma fighter of all time. She easily beats any woman in the UFC not named Amanda Nunes, who she still has the potential to beat in a trilogy fight. Her belt is not the result of luck.

Valentina is excellent and would have become a UFC champ one way or another, but you can't ignore the level of competition she faced at 125.
 
At least she didn’t have to switch weight classes to a division of nobodies to become champ...
 
I mean I kinda think I know what Chef is trying to say here, but that's a bizarre way of saying it imo... maybe due to the language barrier?
 
As much as I like Valentina she needs to STFU about becoming champ by "lucky circumstances", this is the same girl that failed to become champ in the division she was fighting in and had to move down to a totally new division while beating mediocre competition in boring fashion to capture a belt.

Zhang have beaten everybody in front her in dominant and EXCITING fashion, how many people have destroyed a bulldozer like Andrade in 1 or 2 mins? I will wait.....
 
Schevchenko will get flamed for this because Weili is sherdogs current WMMA darling, but in a way shes right.

Zhang has had 1 title fight, and it was about a minute long. Hard to say whether she's the real deal or not yet.

Dont agree with getting there via luck though. Andrade is a tough fight and Zhang earned that belt. Let's see if she can keep it.
She is the real deal win or lose vs Joanna. She already proved that. Do you need 3-4 title defenses to be deemed worthy of competing in a division? And for being a darling I disagree. She is a fierce fighter with great skill, most sherdoggers think wmma is shit which I mostly agree with but she is a pleasure to watch.
 
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