NEW YORK – She may be the challenger Saturday, but former women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili is brimming with confidence.
Weili (22-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) meets Carla Esparza (19-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) for Esparza’s title in the UFC 281 co-main event at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and early prelims on ESPN+.
Weili won the 115-pound belt in August 2019 with a 42-second knockout of Jessica Andrade. She defended it with a split call over Joanna Jedrzejczyk just before the world shut down for the pandemic.
