UFC Fight Night 203: China’s Song Yadong faces toughest test yet in Brazilian Marlon Moraes
- Chinese bantamweight star takes on Brazil’s former title contender Marlon Moraes at UFC Fight Night 203
- ‘My vision has only been about how I can beat Marlon and what are the ways that I could possibly knock him out,’ says Song
There should by rights be a lot swirling around in the head of Song Yadong, as the surging Chinese bantamweight prepares for his first co-main event at UFC Fight Night 203 this weekend, and he faces his first top 10-ranked opponent.
Win, and a run towards a possible title shot awaits the 24-year-old from Harbin, in China’s far north, along with fame and no small amount of fortune. But Song is having none of that sort of talk – or thought – at the moment.
The only thing on his mind is the Brazilian Marlon Moraes.
“All these past weeks my vision has only been about how I can beat Marlon and what are the ways that I could possibly knock him out,” Song says. “Really I have been thinking about that and nothing else.”
There’s a temptation to look at this fight in terms of the bantamweight division’s future and of its past, what with the upstart Song (18-5-1, one no contest) on a 7-1-1 run in the UFC and with it all ahead of him and with the 33-year-old Moraes (23-9-1) riding a 0-3 run and with the sense that memories of his glory days might be starting to fade.