UFC Vegas 33: China’s ‘Mulan’ Wu Yanan says her moment has finally come

Four fights in to her UFC career and the feeling is that China’s Wu “Mulan” Yanan is still feeling her way around the bantamweight division and that the organisation is still working out exactly what sort of talent it has at its disposal.

Saturday night’s UFC Vegas 33 card and a match up for Wu (11-4) with the one-time flyweight champ Nicco Montano (4-3) should help settle matters in both regards.

“There are lots of ways to finish an opponent and in the past I’ve submitted an opponent in the UFC, but I have never knocked someone out in the UFC and that’s what I’m going for,” is the 25-year-old’s bullish appraisal of what lies ahead, when the Post catches Wu, via Zoom, in her Las Vegas hotel room.

What the world – and the UFC – has seen so far from the Liaoning-native has been a mixed bag, with moments that showcase her undoubted ability that have been mixed with too many moments when she has allowed opponents to take control. And that’s why Wu is 1-3 – but she is still around.

Wu’s age, and those flashes of talent, tell us there is plenty more to come, once she settles, and develops – and those are two notions to which Wu readily agrees. She enters the weekend off a unanimous decision loss to Joselyne Edwards (10-3) on January 16 that was a case in point. Wu landed, and defended well early, and came home hard – but by that stage her Panamanian opponent pretty much had things settled.

“I just wasn’t thinking clearly,” Wu explains. “I got a bit confused. So I’ve been learning more about developing my strategy and being clear-minded. So, for this upcoming fight, I’m trying not to think too much about what Nicco is going to do or what her plans are. I’m thinking about what I’m going to, and about how I’m going to bring my fight to her.”