UFC 300 acquired a title bout late on Wednesday night when UFC CEO Dana White revealed a matchup between UFC women's strawweight champion Zhang Weili and the highly ranked Yan Xiaonan.
Zhang (24-3) initiated her second championship tenure at 115 pounds in November 2022, securing victory over Carla Esparza at UFC 281 via second-round submission. In August 2023, Zhang successfully defended her title with a unanimous decision against Amanda Lemos at UFC 292.
The 34-year-old Zhang, a native of China, initially claimed UFC gold in August 2019 by achieving the strawweight title with a first-round TKO triumph over Jessica Andrade. She defended the title in March 2020 with a split decision win over former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Zhang's first title reign concluded in April 2021 when Rose Namajunas knocked her out in 78 seconds at UFC 261. Zhang remains unbeaten in her last three appearances.
Yan (17-3, 1 NC) holds the No. 2 position in the official UFC women's strawweight rankings. Similar to Zhang, Yan, who is also 34, competes out of China. She is undefeated in her last two fights and is coming off a knockout victory over Jessica Andrade at UFC 288 in May 2023. UFC 300 marks her inaugural UFC title fight.
This bout signifies the first instance where two Chinese-born UFC fighters will contend for a title.
The announcement of Zhang vs. Yan follows the inclusion of a title eliminator match between Charles Oliveira (34-9) and Arman Tsarukyan (21-3) for the April 13 UFC 300 pay-per-view card.
The title fight and title eliminator join the three previously declared UFC 300 matchups: Aljamain Sterling vs. Calvin Kattar at featherweight, Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic at light heavyweight, and Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage in a middleweight clash.
White has teased something "insane" for the UFC 300 fight card. Although the main event for the pay-per-view is yet to be announced, White mentioned that he would unveil "at least" two more fights for UFC 300 on Thursday.