UFC Macau, The Morning After: Fraud Checked?
Yesterday at 12:00 PM
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It's not everyday an interesting women's Flyweight prospect come along. The division's Top 10 has been largely stagnant in recent years, made up of the same old faces and Strawweights opting to skip out on their diets. The two exceptions are Manon Fiorot and Erin Blanchfield, who are likely the next two-in-line for title fights and do represent a significant challenge to Valentina Shevchenko.
By and large, it's an open field to climb the ranks quickly.
Enter Wang Cong, who had every element fans could hope for in an exciting new prospect. First and foremost, "The Joker" can fight! An accomplished Wushu Sanda practitioner — not unlike Strawweight queen Zhang Weili — and former professional kickboxer, Cong has a depth of skill to her game and level of experience that most in her division cannot match. She's also physically powerful, as evidenced by her brutal debut knockout win, which lasted just a single minute.
Best of all, Cong came with a prepackaged narrative. She defeated Shevchenko years ago in kickboxing, and nobody has forgotten Alex Pereira's rise up the ranks to (briefly) dethrone Israel Adesanya. Grasso diversion aside, "Bullet" has been atop the Flyweight pack for a long, long time, and some bad blood with a former foe would sell nicely.
As with "Poatan," UFC understood the assignment and matched Cong with a striker that Cong was massively favored to defeat. Indeed, the fight played out that way for most of its runtime until Gabriella Fernandes clocked Cong with a big shot in the second, jumped her back, and finished via strangle.
The question immediately rises: was this a fraud check? Was this a classic case of Cong never being that good and the general fanbase being too quick to jump on a hype train? Is all hope lost?!?
I have to say, my verdict is a resounding "Not Guilty" to the fraud check allegations. Cong didn't look bad here. She put together good, effective offense and showed off her powerful kickboxing. She didn't give up any takedowns. When she was submitted, it was more excusable in that she had already been rocked.
The truth is likely that Gabrielle Fernandes is better than her previous 1-2 UFC record indicated. Those pair of defeats demonstrated an issue with getting held down on the floor, but that's not Cong's game. Fernandes is a former LFA champion — a serious accomplishment — with a jiu-jitsu black belt who is better known for her striking. She's unusual in her ability to hang in the pocket with Cong, take those power shots, and answer with her own offense.
Not many Flyweights are going to be able to replicate that strategy.
In the long term, Cong can still climb the ranks. She still has standout physical gifts and interesting skills in a fairly empty division. The unfortunate part of this loss, however, is that her Pereira moment is gone. There's no longer any chance of rocketing up the ranks into a "Bullet" rematch. That narrative has been squashed, and Cong will have to climb the ladder rung-by-rung like someone who hasn't previously beaten Shevchenko.
On the bright side, it should still be quite fun to watch.
For complete UFC Macau results and play-by-play, click here.
