At UFC 322, the MMA world witnessed Valentina Shevchenko vs Zhang Weili in what many deemed the greatest female MMA fight of all time. From the opening bell, the reigning flyweight’s size discrepancy against the former strawweight champion became clear. That actually turned into her biggest advantage, as ‘Magnum’ couldn’t deal with the wrestling exchanges on the mat. In the end, Shevchenko earned a 50-45 win on all three scorecards, and fans couldn’t wait for UFC CEO Dana White’s comments in the post-fight presser.

“I thought Weili is a little pit bull,” he said in the press conference. “I thought she would be much stronger and do better in that fight than she did. One of her buddies texted me after that fight, said, ‘This is why we have weight classes’.” 

White sounded disappointed, too, and for good reasons. Before the fight, he had opined that it would be a tough bout for either side and that it would be a very interesting matchup. However, ‘Bullet’ was clearly dominant and smoked Weili in every round. All five rounds ended pretty much the same way: Zhang on her back, trying to prevent Shevchenko from ending the fight.

So, it seems White’s expectations fell flat on the face because a section of fans felt it was a boring fight.

Regardless, Shevchenko controlled larger moments in the fight and, in doing so, she made history. She is now the first woman in UFC history to land 60 career takedowns.

Zhang Weili was definitely hyped up ahead of UFC 322 as she made the biggest leap of her career. And the Chinese fighter might have done a pretty good job if someone else had faced her instead of Shevchenko. However, now that her move to 125 lbs didn’t go the way she imagined, her next step seems likely to be returning to her old division and facing Mackenzie Dern for the strawweight gold.

As for the dominant 125 lbs women’s champion, she is also cooking up plenty of plans after her triumphant defense, but ‘Bullet’ moving up to the bantamweight division might not happen, as the UFC CEO didn’t look very keen on that idea.

Dana White is not interested in Shevchenko moving up to 135 lbs after beating Weili

After Shevchenko proved herself once again as one of the greatest female fighters ever, she didn’t waste any time sharing her plans. The reigning women’s flyweight champion mentioned several divisional contenders, such as Natalia Silva, who defeated ‘Bullet’s toughest test, Alexa Grasso, at UFC 315. Then, there was Erin Blanchfield, who earned a big win over Tracy Cortez on the same night as Shevchenko. But she looked a bit more animated when talking about a possible fight against Kayla Harrison at 135 lbs.

At the UFC 322 Octagon interview, Bullet said, “I also heard in one ear that Kayla Harrison is calling me out. So I have a lot of options to think about.”

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Well, Harrison did call her out on Jorge Masvidal’s podcast for a possible showdown at the UFC White House event. However, Dana White doesn’t seem very keen on Shevchenko moving up to another division to challenge a woman much bigger than her.

At the post-fight presser, a reporter asked the UFC CEO, “Would you be interested in Valentina moving back to 135 to try to test herself? Would you be okay with that?”

White responded, “I don’t know. I don’t think about that kind of s—t.”

Well, he didn’t outright dismiss the idea, but his reaction to Willis’ question didn’t show any positive sign either—probably because of how tonight’s fight turned out with the size discrepancy. Still, it’ll be interesting to see what the UFC decides if Shevchenko makes another successful defense.

That said, what do you think is next for Valentina Shevchenko and Zhang Weili after UFC 322? Let us know in the comments section below.