Daniel Cormier Thinks Valentina Shevchenko Needs To Rematch Taila Santos Before Challenging Zhang Weili

Daniel Cormier likes the idea of strawweight champion Zhang Weili moving up to face Shevchenko but feels a rematch with Santos should come first.

Cormier Shevchenko
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Daniel Cormier is a fan of Zhang Weili jumping up to face Valentina Shevchenko but feels the flyweight champ has some unfinished business first. 

There are two very tough and dominant fighters at the tops of the women’s strawweight and flyweight divisions in the UFC. With the win at UFC 281, Zhang Weili has once again proven that she is the best at 115 pounds. Over the last four years, since coming to the UFC, Zhang has shown that she is an almost unstoppable force. Since 2013 she has only lost two bouts, both to Rose Namajunas. This streak shows that although Namajuans seems to have her number, Zhang is a force to be reckoned with. 

Since winning the belt for the second time, Zhang has no clear next contender. She recently spoke about welcoming all challengers and wanting a chance to move up in weight to challenge another dominant champion, Valentina Shevchenko. 

Daniel Cormier thinks Valentina Shevchenko has unfinished business with Talia Santos

UFC fighter turned commentator and analyst, Daniel Cormier likes the idea of Zhang Weili moving up to try for “champ champ” status. He is high on her skills and thinks she has proven herself so far in her career. However, he feels that perhaps Shevchenko isn’t quite ready for that bout to happen. 

“Do you think that we’re gonna see a strawweight be able to compete with Zhang Weili right now? We’ve seen her lose before to Rose Namajunas but outside of that, she’s been pretty dominant,” he said on his DC & RC show. “And the way the division has been moving, it would seem as though and we talked about this right after she won the belt, it seemed like she would bring stability to this weight class. If she’s able to do that and defend the belt a couple of times I would absolutely love to watch her fight Valentina Shevchenko. But I’m not letting the champ off the hook just yet. Valentina needs to give Taila Santos a rematch before she starts fighting other champions because of the way that fight was playing out before.”

Cormier is referring to the last title defense for Shevchenko. She faced Taila Santos at UFC 275. The bout was ruled a split-decision victory for the champ but many believed the fight could have been scored for Santos. She is by far the closest any fighter has come to beating Shevchneko in many years. Santos has been calling for a rematch and Cormier thinks that score should be settled before anything else. 

Published on December 7, 2022 at 11:00 am
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