UFC CEO Dana White announced on Thursday night that UFC women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili (26-3) is vacating the 115-pound title, and is moving up to challenge Valentina Shevchenko (25-4-1) for the women’s flyweight title in the co-main event of UFC 322.
The event, headlined by a welterweight title bout between current champion Jack Della Maddalena and former lightweight champ Islam Makhachev takes place Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden.
Weili is a two -time UFC strawweight champion, first capturing the gold in 2019 from Jessica Andrade. She would go on to defeat former champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk in her first title defense, but then dropped the belt to former champion Rose Namajunas. Weili recaptured the title in 2022 with a win over then champion Carla Esparza. She went on to defend three more times before deciding to vacate and move up in weight.
Shevchenko, also a two-time champion, first won UFC gold in 2018 and went on to successfully defend her title seven times before losing by way of submission to Alexa Grasso in 2023. When challennging Grasso for the belt in a rematch, their bout was ruled a draw which then forced a trilogy bout where Shevchenko would earn a unanimous decision. She then went on to defend the belt against Manon Fiorot earlier this year, before agreeing to the superfight against Zhang Weili.
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