It’s as close to a Ultimate Fighting Championship champ vs. champ battle as we are going to get these days.
With the promotion not permitting champions to chase belts in other divisions without relinquishing their own first, strawweight queen Weili Zhang (26-3) had to give up her throne on Thursday. She did so because of her booking against Valentina Shevchenko (25-4-1), which will be for flyweight gold at UFC 322. The champions will be squaring off in the co-main event spot, as announced by the promotion, inside of Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov.