Boston, MA — Women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili looks to make the first title defense of her second reign at UFC 292 this Saturday, in a somewhat surprising match-up with Amanda Lemos.
Surprising to outsiders, anyway. Zhang herself wasn’t surprised by the match-up, and knew about it early on, she let slip during Wednesday’s media day in Boston. The fight serves as the co-main event at the TD Garden, with Zhang returning from a win over Carla Esparza.
“I’m not surprised about this match-up at all, because we started working on this fight very early. Earlier than Yan [Xiaonan]’s fight,” Zhang (23-3) revealed. “After my last fight and Lemos beat Marina [Rodriguez], then we started working on this fight. We were just working on some details like the date, the location, but we started working on this fight earlier than Yan’s win over Jessica Andrade.”
Many had expected Zhang to face fellow Chinese star Yan, a match-up that would no doubt light their home country ablaze. That fight will have to wait, however, assuming Zhang gets past Lemos. And assuming Tatiana Suarez doesn’t jump the line into the next title shot.
It’s because of names like Xiaonan and Suarez that Zhang vs. Lemos feels overlooked. Amanda Lemos certainly felt that way, expressing as much during her own media day appearance. Zhang doesn’t agree.
“I don’t feel that way. What I feel is, there are still a lot of people focused and concerned about my fight. Especially in China, a lot of people follow this fight, they want to watch this,” she stated. “Of course in the U.S., more people are concerned about [Sean] O’Malley and [Aljamain] Sterling’s fight. But I do feel there’s still a lot of people who want to watch our fight.”
Lemos also suggested that she has the edge in all areas in the bout. “Let’s see Saturday in the octagon. Then we’ll have the answer,” Zhang responded.
As to how she views her opponent, Zhang had an interesting take. “I visualize my opponent as my teacher. So I will study and learn from her,” she said. Zhang then brings that knowledge into her own game. Then, moving forward, “for each camp when I fight, prepare for each new opponent, I can learn a lot from her. At some point, I see her as a teacher.”
Watch the full UFC 292 media day appearance by Zhang Weili above.
