UFC 281: Carla Esparza reveals title defence against China’s Zhang Weili is ‘official’ for November 12 in NYC
- Chinese MMA superstar earned title shot with stunning knockout of Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 275 in June
- Esparza started second strawweight title reign with split-decision win over Rose Namajunas at UFC 274 in May, but has yet to defend belt
China’s Zhang Weili is set to challenge for strawweight gold at UFC 281 on November 12 in New York City, according to the division’s champion Carla Esparza.
Esparza revealed the match-up on her Twitter account early Friday morning, calling it “official”– which implies that contracts are signed, at least on her end.
Zhang (22-3) has been considered the No 1 contender at strawweight since she scored a highlight-reel knockout victory over decorated former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in Singapore in June.
That victory separated the 33-year-old from a pair of losses to Rose Namajunas – a first-round TKO and a split decision – the first of which ended her reign as UFC strawweight queen.
Zhang won the title with a first-round TKO of Brazil’s Jessica Andrade in Shenzhen in 2019, and defended it once, with a split-decision win over Jedrzejczyk in 2020, before she ran into Namajunas.
