Taking to social media on Wednesday night, Dana White announced the first title fight for UFC 300 will be Weili Zhang vs. Yan Xiaonan.
It will mark the first-ever title bout between two fighters from China, and will take place on April 13 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“This is the first time two Chinese contenders have faced off for a world title,” said White in a video posted to X.
“Why is this such a bad— fight? Let me tell you why,” continued White. “Weili Zhang has 19 finishes in 24 wins — that’s an 80 per cent finish rate. She is tied for second-most title wins in strawweight history, and she was involved in arguably one of the greatest fights ever versus Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Her last fight was the most dominant statistical win ever in UFC women’s history against Amanda Lemos. She out-struck her 288-21 in that fight. She landed the most strikes on the ground by a UFC strawweight ever.”
Zhang, 34, has a 24-3 record and has won her last three fights, plus 24 of her last 26.
“Yan (Xiaonan) is the first Chinese female ever signed to the UFC,” added White. She’s got the most head strikes landed in a single UFC strawweight fight ever, and she is coming off a first-round knockout against Jessica Andrade in under three minutes, which, by the way, she was a 2-1 underdog in that fight, and she has eight first-round knockouts.”
Xiaonan, also 34, has a 17-3 record and has gone 6-2 in her past eight fights.
White ended the video by promising UFC fans he would announce at least “two or more” fights on Thursday.
So far, this is how the UFC300 lineup looks:
• Strawweight Title Bout: Weili Zhang vs. Yan Xiaonan
• Light Heavyweight Bout: Jiří Procházka vs. Aleksandar Rakić
• Lightweight Bout: Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan
• Featherweight Bout: Aljamain Sterling vs. Calvin Kattar
• Middleweight Bout: Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage