The title picture at women's strawweight - assessing the champion and the four top contenders

[davidlemonparty]

I like the post. I don't care about WMMA.
I wish you'd put this level of interest, detail and formatting into one of the actually interesting divisions such as BW FW LW WW MW

 

[Fuzzybabyducks]

Well joana is still elite, no doubt.
But if you give her a third TS in a row - aside from the waterson fight - its a bit unfair if you have a strong contender like suarez.
If that was male MW, with no clear contender, i would agree but we got suarez.
It may have been different if andrade had beaten zhang, a rematch with joana would have made sense.
But, right now, suarez appeared to have paid her dues imo

It wouldn’t be a third title shot in a row besides the Waterson fight.
I do agree though she should fight Suarez and Joanna could fight the winner of that. Maybe she can fight Jessica again, re claim that number one spot while she waits on that fight. I am curious how the champ would do against a style like Suarez has .

 

[Iron Nick]

Did you write all that yourself mate? About WMMA?

Yup!

 

[Iron Nick]

I like the post. I don't care about WMMA.
I wish you'd put this level of interest, detail and formatting into one of the actually interesting divisions such as BW FW LW WW MW

Appreciate your words.
The thing is that the fighters on here have a relatively limited amount of fights, compared to the champions and top contenders at the male divisions, so i'd have to watch a lot more fights (and statistics).
But despite (or because?) the amount of effort put into this post it was pretty fun.
I guess a similar post for one or more of the divisions you've mentioned might come as well some day..

 

[amok attitude]

It wouldn’t be a third title shot in a row besides the Waterson fight.
I do agree though she should fight Suarez and Joanna could fight the winner of that. Maybe she can fight Jessica again, re claim that number one spot while she waits on that fight. I am curious how the champ would do against a style like Suarez has .

You are right about the TS and it may change things a bit. We ll see who is ready to go, joanna or suarez (for different reasons) are interesting match ups against the current champ anyway

 

[magicmarker]

 

[magicmarker]

Suarez is the most interesting one imho. I would like to see her get the opportunity.

 

[Iron Nick]

View attachment 676475

I mean yeah, i'm not going to deny that this is a big amount of text..
Would be cool if you'd give it a shot though, i'm sure there's shorter texts out there which are more boring!

 

[Iron Nick]

Suarez is the most interesting one imho. I would like to see her get the opportunity.

So far the majority of people find this matchup interesting and i agree, I'm not sure though if it'd be better if Suarez had at least one more fight, i mean she's a bit green still, isn't she?
On the other hand: Zhang wasn't much longer in the UFC..

 

[magicmarker]

I mean yeah, i'm not going to deny that this is a big amount of text..
Would be cool if you'd give it a shot though, i'm sure there's shorter texts out there which are more boring!

I didn’t say TLDR. I was just in shock at the amount of perceived effort put into the OP. Sherdog tends to refresh the page on my phone often so if I tried to write anything that long, I would lose what I wrote so many times and have to start over that I would throw my phone through a wall within 20 minutes.

 

[tucan89]

Joanna Contender and Rose are done, Jessica Andrade just lost so she needs a win before she's considered for a shitle tot, give her Carla Esparza. I would love to see Tatiana fight for the belt but I think she's still injured.

 

[magicmarker]

So far the majority of people find this matchup interesting and i agree, I'm not sure though if it'd be better if Suarez had at least one more fight, i mean she's a bit green still, isn't she?
On the other hand: Zhang wasn't much longer in the UFC..

I would rather see someone new get the shot and lose than have a situation where the others keep taking turns beating one another and she gets stuck waiting on the outside.

 

[Ares Black]

Awesome, insanely in-depth thread dude. I'm impressed.

On the topic at hand, I have been on the Zhang hypetrain since she murdered Aguilar, and I know she is relatively untested, but I truly believe that she is on another level.

I think she beats Jedrzejczyk and Namajunas with relative ease. She might struggle with Suarez, or she might run right through her.

115 is a great division, with an awesome champion, strong contenders, and several interesting prospects. I am especially impressed with Amanda Ribas and
Brianna van Buren.

I think Weili Zhang will be a dominant champ for the foreseeable future, but there will some amazing fights along the way.

 

[Ares Black]

Gonna bump this thread periodically to provide some variety to that often terrible first page.

 

[youllneverwalkalone]

I like the post. I don't care about WMMA.
I wish you'd put this level of interest, detail and formatting into one of the actually interesting divisions such as BW FW LW WW MW

You could attempt that yourself, you know.

 

[Iron Nick]

Joanna Contender and Rose are done, Jessica Andrade just lost so she needs a win before she's considered for a shitle tot, give her Carla Esparza. I would love to see Tatiana fight for the belt but I think she's still injured.

Why do you think Joanna and Rose are done?

 

[Iron Nick]

Awesome, insanely in-depth thread dude. I'm impressed.

On the topic at hand, I have been on the Zhang hypetrain since she murdered Aguilar, and I know she is relatively untested, but I truly believe that she is on another level.

I think she beats Jedrzejczyk and Namajunas with relative ease. She might struggle with Suarez, or she might run right through her.

115 is a great division, with an awesome champion, strong contenders, and several interesting prospects. I am especially impressed with Amanda Ribas and
Brianna van Buren.

I think Weili Zhang will be a dominant champ for the foreseeable future, but there will some amazing fights along the way.

Thanks a lot man, glad you like it!
(I'll post a spoiler with the strawweight stats for these five soon at the end of the post, as the stats at the UFC homepage are at least in the cases of Jedrzejczyk and Andrade influenced by their bouts at other weightclasses.)

Weili really is impressive, not just based on her fight with Andrade, although i didn't have her on my radar prior. I actually think that Joanna has the best shot, as she's been able to decisively beat Andrade in a five rounder, and while Andrade is the less technical striker, her output surpasses that of anyone else on this list, so with a similar tactic like she had against Andrade, Joanna might have a shot, like dissectingaorticanyeurism already has noted. I might give Rose a chance as well, since she's great at countering and (despite the misleading stats) has great defense and head movement. Although she should make sure to avoid leg kicks, as she's a bit susceptible to them.
(Rose also has pretty good power BTW.)

I'd really like to see Zhang against Suarez, nice matchup imo, but yeah, Suarez has to make sure to avoid pocket exchanges with Zhang, as the latter is super dangerous there and Suarez can be hurt there.

I have to take a look at Ribas and van Buren, would be great to have some more prospects in the mix, the division is so stacked!

 

[Iron Nick]

Gonna bump this thread periodically to provide some variety to that often terrible first page.

Thanks haha, i do have to say that i expected much worse, so i'm pretty fine with it so far.

 

[Iron Nick]

I didn’t say TLDR. I was just in shock at the amount of perceived effort put into the OP. Sherdog tends to refresh the page on my phone often so if I tried to write anything that long, I would lose what I wrote so many times and have to start over that I would throw my phone through a wall within 20 minutes.

Alright! To my defense: i've made that post on my computer, i'd have tendonitis by now if i attempted to make that post solely on the phone and yea, i can see why you wouldn't attempt such a long post from the phone!

 

[aerius]

When comparing the amount of landed versus absorbed strikes, Weili Zhang is the most effective fighter out of the five mentioned, with a strike differential of 3.98, which is slightly higher than Jedrzejczyk's 3.9 and also absorbs the second least significant strikes per minute with 2.24, landing only behind Tatiana Suarez' 1.45, although it should be stated that fighters who dominate from the ground generally tend to absorb very few strikes, making the fact that Zhang is rather close to Suarez all the more impressive.
Albeit being already very good on the feet with a so far perfect takedown defense of 100%, Zhang's strengths are not just stand up fighting; in fact, out of the five fighters here she's arguably the most dominant ground and pound fighter after the aforementioned Tatiana Suarez.
Capable of taking her opponents down with numerous trips, takedowns and throws, Zhang is very dangerous on the ground, landing 26.2% of her total strikes on the ground, controlling her opponents while landing devastating blows, as it can be seen during her fight against Jessica Aguilar.
Despite arguably preferring to maul her opponents on the ground, she is able to submit opponents too, finishing the aforementioned Aguilar with an armbar and having 7 out of her 20 pro wins by the way of submission, which also makes her the fighter with the most submission wins on this list.
To sum it, Zhang - both technically and physically - really is an extremely gifted and well-rounded fighter, who, despite being mostly a stand-up figher is dangerous wherever the fight goes, with her only noteworthy weakness being sometimes a bit too reckless in boxing exchanges.

Things to consider; we can't look at numbers alone, and level of competition matters. Joanna has faced all the best wrestlers except Suarez, all the best strikers, and gone up a division to challenge the most skilled fighter in WMMA. We can't say that about Zhang, the best striker she's faced is Tecia Torres and Andrade didn't even try to wrestle her in their title fight. There's been a grand total of 3 takedowns attempted against Zhang in her entire UFC career.

As for the effectiveness of Zhang's takedowns, once again, we need to look at the bigger picture. When she went up against a good fighter with fairly sound technique (Tecia) she was only 2 for 8 on takedowns, and while she got a lot of clinch and ground control time she didn't get much damage done. Consider that Andrade was 10 for 12 on takedowns against Tecia along with landing far more clinch strikes, ground strikes, and guard passes and Zhang's takedowns & ground game doesn't look as impressive as her overall career numbers make them sound. I'd argue that both Suarez and Andrade have a better takedown and ground game than Zhang.

Same thing with striking. Folks are gushing about Zhang's KO power when the only UFC opponent she's knocked loopy is Andrade, and that's because Jessica ran face first into the punches in full Ronda Rousey style. She literally led with her face and charged right into a fist. I wrote more about that over here. If we look at her other fights she's not nearly as devastating on the feet, she never knocked down or wobbled her other opponents.

Now, am I saying that Zhang is a bad fighter? Absolutely not, she's pretty good in all areas but there's no area where she's actually elite. Her takedowns & grappling aren't as good as Suarez or Claudia in her prime, and her standup isn't at the same level as Joanna or Valentina. Put it another way. Think of Nunes or Shevchenko as the WMMA equivalents of GSP; a fighter who's the best in all areas. Zhang would be like a Jon Fitch in comparison, good to very good, but a level or 2 down from the best.

Personally, I think all 4 of the challengers can beat Zhang if they fight smart and stick to the game plan, with Joanna and Suarez having the best chance. I'd favour Joanna over Zhang and think Suarez is about 50/50. Rose is dependant on her mental state and how Zhang chooses to fight, if Zhang applies good pressure she has a good chance of winning, if she consents to a distance striking game she gets taken apart. Andrade has the worst chance of the 4, but if she fights the same way she did against Rose she might be able to take the fight deep and pile up enough damage later in the fight to win.