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.” The Kung Fu Monkey ain't playing whenever he's inside the Octagon!😳 🐒 @SongYaDongMMA takes on Moraes in the co-main event! 📱📺💻 #UFCVegas50 | 𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐒 𝐯𝐬 𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐄𝐕 | MAR 13 pic.twitter.com/SiV7FNbLgz — UFC_Asia (@UFC_Asia) March 9, 2022 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. But the 14th-ranked “The Kung Fu Monkey” says he’s not being fooled by recent form. He knows the 10th-ranked Moraes has been mixing with the very best the division has to offer, and as recently as 2019 was fighting for the title. “Marlon is still a very explosive fighter and even though he has lost three fights I don’t really think he has lost any of skill, or his ability to win a fight,” Song says. “Sometimes in this sport you lose because of luck or fortune, and things haven’t really gone his way. But I still see him as a top fighter and I’m very glad I can fight with these top fighters. It’s also another good chance for me to prove my skills.” For his part, Moraes has this week said – simply – that he needs to win this fight, to arrest his slide and throw himself back in with the division’s top talent. He told MMAFighting.com it was no secret how things would play out inside the UFC Apex facility. “He’ll stand with me and try to surprise me and knock me out, but I’ll do the exact same thing to him,” Moraes says. And Song is happy to hear that news, too. “We both like to strike and we both like to put on a show for the fans and I think that’s exactly what we will do,” he says. Song comes into the weekend on the back of arguably a career-best performance. He dismantled American Julio Arce (17-5) last November, throwing heavy from the bell and landing a right foot to the head and two huge follow-up right hands that finished it at 1.35 of the second. “That fight meant everything to me and you know afterwards when I was getting checked by the doctor, he said he thought I had improved a lot,” says Song. “That was great to hear because if he noticed, then everyone noticed. I really wanted everything to go right in that fight and I felt in control, I felt like I showed people how much I had improved.” For that Song is quick to point to a growing sense of maturity and focus brought on by the arrival of his son, Dustin, three-and-a-half years ago. “You know before he came along my mission was just training, training, training. That’s all I would do. But now I have other commitments and I have learned to train smarter, and to make things more efficient,” Song says. “ That’s why I think more about my training now, about everything I am doing, and then I know more about what my body can take. I think that has helped me grow as a fighter and it shows in my results. The thing is I don’t really think I have any special talent or anything, I just know what I can do and I am learning how to make the most of what I know and what I can do.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by 宋亚东 (@yadongsong) There’s also been the ever-present influence of UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber, in Song’s corner and by his side pretty much since the Chinese fighter threw his lot in with the Team Alpha Male crew in Sacramento back in 2017. “Uriah has always been a mentor for me,” Song says. “He’s taking care of me, looking after me, not only in training but my life in Sacramento. I know I can learn so much from him because of his career. He has been through it all.” Song says he’s in a happy place, thanks to his form, his friendships and the fact that his parents arrived from China two weeks ago to finally meet their grandson in person, and to catch up with a son who has been away for so long. “I feel like all that is happening is the outcome of my dedication to training,” he says. “And from that dedication, then step by step I am getting closer to what I have always been dreaming about, and I am getting closer to the top.”