Weili Zhang’s surprising strawweight title win would be something UFC would have been hoping for from a business standpoint for years. But it was something they weren’t expecting for many more years.
In international business, China is the great frontier, with its emerging economy and its 1.43 billion population base. China is already a gigantic market for American action movies. The NBA had a great boom period based on Yao Ming emerging as a star. If you turn the clock back a decade or so, with the first thoughts of how the Internet and streaming would replace traditional television, Dana White would talk about the day when they could put on a pay-per-view and it would go live everywhere in the world. The idea was that if a big show could do 800,000 buys just in the U.S., imagine the numbers it could do when available worldwide. The idea of 5 million buys at $50 or $60 all over the world, and with streaming, not having to share half with the cable operators made UFC look like an incredible future business. The match would tell you a level of numbers that could only be dreamed about, and those type of shows could, in theory, happen a few times a year. And China, since the idea that martial arts is part of the foundation of the country, was expected to be a huge part of that.
Today, things have changed. Internet pay-per-view is available, but never took off like expected. But the attempt to create a superstar who will take the sport mainstream in China is strong enough that the UFC just opened its own Performance Institute in the country attempting to invest heavily in that process.
When the UFC launched the Ultimate Fighter reality show season in China in 2013-2014, that was the goal. Do what happened with UFC in 2005. get on television, expose the sport to the sports fans and television viewers, and with that exposure, stars will naturally be created. Those local stars will then be the building blocks of future economic success.
That formula worked huge in the U.S., and Brazil, but not nearly as well elsewhere. Chinese MMA back then was far behind that of the U.S., Canada, U.K. or Brazil., and at the time, the belief was it would take a decade or more before someone who could be a legitimate champion on the international stage would emerge. Not one member of that cast became big name in China, nor a star anywhere else. And there never was a second season.
In fighting, when it comes to new markets, having stars from those markets are key. Michael Bisping was a huge key in building MMA in the U.K. Conor McGregor was huge for it in Ireland, where Dublin today is a hotbed for a number of companies. Vitor Belfort and Anderson Silva built Brazil, although MMA had history in that country dating back to the Gracies as a usually underground type of sport. In kickboxing, there were booms created in the 90s in Switzerland behind Andy Hug and in the 00s in Croatia from the success in Japan of Mirko Cro Cop. But in those cases, it was the star and not the sport, and those booms were short-lived. It also should be noted all of those names, aside from behind great fighters, had strong charisma.
Zhang (20-1), who hasn’t lost a fight since a decision in her 2013 debut, won the title in her fourth UFC fight. She got the title shot partially because she dominated Tecia Torres, partially because Tatiana Suarez didn’t look great in her win over Nina Ansaroff and largely because it made sense to have the country’s best fighter challenge for a title on a show in Shenzhen, China. She was only ranked as the No. 6 contender. But there was no clear-cut top contender. Her title shot was a surprise, but not a gift either. But it’s hard to believe it would have happened if she wasn’t Chinese, particularly with a show scheduled in that country.
But she came through, and then some, with a 42-second win. Anything can happen in MMA. That’s part of the beauty and unpredictability of the sport. Quick title wins are sometimes unique historical flukes, like Matt Serra’s win over Georges St-Pierre. It happened, and was decisive at the time. But if they fought 10 times, GSP was probably winning nine of them handily.
But what we can say here is that this was not a one-punch knockout. Zhang rocked champion Jessica Andrade right away after an exchange, but it was the precision of her follow-up strikes that gave her the big win.
So the UFC has its first legitimate Chinese world champion, and she’s a 30-year-old, 115-pound woman. Culturally what does that mean? China is a very different world. Unlike with Bisping and McGregor, or Silva, where the UFC knew exactly what it had, Zhang came almost out of nowhere. And they got what they wanted many years faster than expected. It’s clearly a very good thing for the company, but how good depends on aspects of a world few westerners have any idea of.
Let’s look at how Fortunes Changed for Five stars of Saturday’s show.
WEILI ZHANG - A virtual unknown, when it comes to this market, the win and the speed of it were shocks. It happened on a streaming show that aired in the middle of he night in much of the country, meaning very small viewership live. With the first weekend of college football, the news was buried and the title change didn’t even crack the top 20 searches for the day. Zhang is a champion in a very exciting division, but still is an unknown to all but the hardest core UFC fans.
As far as next, there are several interesting directions. Former champion Rose Namajunas (8-4) deserves the next shot. While Namajunas lost her title to Andrade, until the slam that knocked her out, she was not just dominating the fight, but she looked a level above what she had ever looked like before. Zhang vs. Namajunas may not be big box office, but it’s a very intriguing championship fight. But Namajunas has not fought since. It’s very questionable based on comments she’s made, if she’ll ever fight again. If she doesn’t want the shot, the door is wide open.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk (15-3) faces Michelle Waterson (17-6) on Oct. 12 in Tampa, and that winner would make a good next contender. It gives that main event more importance. Jedrzejczyk, who popularized the division, is still its biggest star even with her two losses to Namajunas. Tatiana Suarez (8-0) is the other choice. It’s a classic great wrestler vs. great striker, but Suarez has battled neck problems of late. That’s a concern for a prospective five-round fight.
JESSICA ANDRADE - Andrade (20-7) has to rebuild. She could face Suarez or the Jedrzejczyk vs. Waterson loser next. The division still only has a handful of fighters with title challenging potential so a road back to a title shot should only take her one or two key wins.
LI JINGLIANG- “The Leach,” (17-5) was winning every round en route to a third-round stoppage of Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos. It was Jingliang’s seventh win in his last eight bouts. And he beat the No. 14 ranked contender. Jingliang’s next opponent could be either Alex Oliveira (19-7-1) or Geoff Neal (12-2).
ELIZEU ZALESKI DOS SANTOS - Dos Santos (21-6) had a seven-fight winning streak snapped. Two good opponents for him could be Michel Prazeres (26-3) or Alexey Kunchenko (20-1).
KAI KARA-FRANCE - Kara-France (20-7, 1 no contest) won his eighth in a row on Saturday with a decision over Mark De La Rosa (11-3) in a battle of ranked flyweights. France should next face Alexandre Pantoja (21-4), as the winner of such a fight would be in discussions for a future title fight.