UFC: Yan Xiaonan tells Zhang Weili move over – ‘it’s my time’, as she targets strawweight title
- ‘The Fury’ is on a collision course with China’s first UFC champion
- ‘We are good friends, but that would be forgotten when we step into the cage’
Spare a quick thought for Yan “Fury” Xiaonan.
As the first female Chinese fighter signed by the UFC, the hope was that the strawweight from Liaoning might carve her way up through the rankings and into the history books as her country’s first champion, or at least title challenger.
But fate – and a certain Zhang “Magnum” Weili – have combined to deal the 30-year-old a different hand.
Yan was watching on in Shenzhen last year as Zhang (20-1) claimed her own slice of history – and bragging rights over her friend and sometime training partner – by claiming the strawweight title with her 42-second undoing of Brazilian Jessica Andrade (20-7).
Injury then scuppered Yan’s climb into the world rankings but she doesn’t want the world to worry. Far from it.
Yan says the past 12 months have simply made her stronger, that Zhang’s exploits have been an inspiration through the hard times and that, maybe, she also looms as the shape of things to come.