Sydney, Australia — In his second stint with the UFC, and having lost his first fight since returning to the company, China’s Zhu Rong needed a win in a big way.
He got just that – a big win – at UFC 312 on Saturday, in a fight that started out slow but turned into a slobber-knocker opposite the debuting Kody Steele. Evidence of that was written all over Zhu’s face backstage at the Qudos Bank Arena on Saturday, although he told media outlets including Cageside Press that things were “in general, all good” when it came to injury.
As for the match-up on Saturday, well, Zhu could not have asked for anything more. The pair had trained together previously, and their styles turned out to bring out the best in each other.
“I know Kody pretty well. Although he’s a grappler, I know he’s a brawler. So this type of match-up is what I expected. In my previous UFC fights, all my opponents, they are kind of running away from me, trying to win by points, trying to grapple with me. This fight, Kody, he’s the ideal opponent for me.”
Zhu Rong improved to 26-6 with the unanimous decision victory, and served up the first loss of Steeles career. And while he couldn’t find the finish (certainly not for lack of effort, as he had Steele on skates in the opening round), Zhu had actually come in wanting to go the full 15 minutes.
“To be honest, before this fight, I hoped this fight I could fight the whole three rounds. Because I do believe I can learn a lot through the fights,” he explained. “Of course this is not an easy fight, it’s a really hard fight, but I can tell you that my training camp at CKB [City Kickboxing], every day training is ten times harder than this.”
Asked whether the high-octane fight will help draw extra eyeballs to his next outing, Zhu said simply, “of course.”
Watch the full UFC 312 post-fight appearance by Zhu Rong above.
