It’s not on a regular basis an fascinating ladies’s Flyweight prospect come alongside. The division’s High 10 has been largely stagnant in recent times, made up of the identical previous faces and Strawweights opting to skip out on their diets. The 2 exceptions are Manon Fiorot and Erin Blanchfield, who’re doubtless the following two-in-line for title fights and do characterize a big problem to Valentina Shevchenko.
By and huge, it’s an open subject to climb the ranks shortly.
Enter Wang Cong, who had each ingredient followers may hope for in an thrilling new prospect. In the beginning, “The Joker” can struggle! An achieved Wushu Sanda practitioner — not not like Strawweight queen Zhang Weili — and former skilled kickboxer, Cong has a depth of ability to her recreation and stage of expertise that the majority in her division can not match. She’s additionally bodily highly effective, as evidenced by her brutal debut knockout win, which lasted only a single minute.
Better of all, Cong got here with a prepackaged narrative. She defeated Shevchenko years in the past in kickboxing, and no person has forgotten Alex Pereira’s stand up the ranks to (briefly) dethrone Israel Adesanya. Grasso diversion apart, “Bullet” has been atop the Flyweight pack for a protracted, very long time, and a few dangerous blood with a former foe would promote properly.
As with “Poatan,” UFC understood the project and matched Cong with a striker that Cong was massively favored to defeat. Certainly, the struggle performed out that approach for many of its runtime till Gabriella Fernandes clocked Cong with an enormous shot within the second, jumped her again, and completed by way of strangle.
The query instantly rises: was this a fraud verify? Was this a traditional case of Cong by no means being that good and the final fanbase being too fast to leap on a hype practice? Is all hope misplaced?!?
I’ve to say, my verdict is a powerful “Not Responsible” to the fraud verify allegations. Cong didn’t look dangerous right here. She put collectively good, efficient offense and confirmed off her highly effective kickboxing. She didn’t surrender any takedowns. When she was submitted, it was extra excusable in that she had already been rocked.
The reality is probably going that Gabrielle Fernandes is best than her earlier 1-2 UFC document indicated. These pair of defeats demonstrated a problem with getting held down on the ground, however that’s not Cong’s recreation. Fernandes is a former LFA champion — a severe accomplishment — with a jiu-jitsu black belt who is best recognized for her putting. She’s uncommon in her capacity to hold within the pocket with Cong, take these energy pictures, and reply along with her personal offense.
Not many Flyweights are going to have the ability to replicate that technique.
In the long run, Cong can nonetheless climb the ranks. She nonetheless has standout bodily items and fascinating abilities in a reasonably empty division. The unlucky a part of this loss, nonetheless, is that her Pereira second is gone. There’s now not any likelihood of rocketing up the ranks right into a “Bullet” rematch. That narrative has been squashed, and Cong must climb the ladder rung-by-rung like somebody who hasn’t beforehand overwhelmed Shevchenko.
On the brilliant facet, it ought to nonetheless be fairly enjoyable to look at.
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