UFC: China’s Yan Xiaonan gets her date with Cláudia Gadelha – finally

China’s Yan “Fury” Xiaonan entered 2020 with her sights set on a top-10 ranking and on meeting one of the UFC strawweight division’s top contenders. Well, both those boxes are being ticked.

The 31-year-old from Shenyang’s 5-0 run in the UFC – to take her overall record to 12-1, with one no contest - has her now ranked number 10, exactly. And she’s now setting herself to face Brazil’s sixth-ranked Cláudia “Claudinha” Gadelha (18-4) at UFC Fight Night 182 on November 7 (venue TBC).

“When I heard that I was going to get this fight, I was very excited and wanted to fight as soon as possible,” Yan tells SCMP MMA.

But Yan has been made to wait. In keeping with these tumultuous times, the fight nearly didn’t come off. It had been set for the UFC 253: Adesanya v Costa blockbuster on September 26, and While Yan was making her way to the USA for final preparations, Gadelha damaged her left knee in training – and the Chinese fighter learned on landing that a new date was needed.

Back in February Yan’s preparations for her trip to New Zealand to fight Karolina Kowalkiewicz (12-6) were thrown into disarray as the world started to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. She made it – but only after an extended stopover in Thailand – and she won. Now she’ll bunker down for an extended stay in the USA and hope to come away with the same result on November 7.