Zhang Weili says superfight against Valentina Shevchenko is a "must"

Zhang Weili recently expressed her desire to face Valentina Shevchenko and stated that she would love to move up to flyweight to fight the champion.

In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Weili was asked for her thoughts on facing the flyweight champ in the future. Weili stated:

"Yeah. It’s a must, for sure, no question. I thought about this a couple of years back, eventually we would run into each other in the octagon because the weight divisions were so close... It will be a great performance, regardless of the outcome."

Zhang Weili is currently on a two-fight win streak, previously beating Carla Esparza via second-round submission at UFC 281 for the women's strawweight championship. While 'Magnum' has functionally cleared her division with the exception of Rose Namajunas, against whom her record stands at 2-0, Weili's dominant performance against Esparza should warrant a shot at Shevchenko.

Meanwhile, Valentina Shevchenko is riding an impressive nine-fight win streak while defending her title seven times. 'Bullet' is currently the No.2-ranked fighter in the UFC Women's Pound-for-Pound (P4P) rankings. She last beat Taila Santos at UFC 275 via split decision.

While nothing is official yet, a fight between the two champions certainly promises fireworks and draws big numbers for the promotion.

Watch Zhang Weili's full interview on The MMA Hour below:

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Zhang Weili says Francis Ngannou was "easy" to lift and claims the heavyweight is "not heavy"

In the aforementioned interview, Zhang Weili blew Ariel Helwani's mind when she claimed that Francis Ngannou was easy to lift up and that she thought he was not too heavy.

Just before UFC 281, Ngannou shocked MMA fans when he posted a video of Weili casually lifting him up in the gym. She amazed viewers with her incredible feat of strength, surprising even the Cameroonian-French champion, who claimed he weighed 293 lbs at the time.

While speaking on The MMA Hour, Weili was asked if her video of lifting Ngannou up while training was real. Magnum replied:

"Real. Real. Yes, Ngannou is not much heavy. Easy."

Upon Helwani pointing out that the heavyweight champion weighed about 280 lbs at the time, 'Magnum' responded:

"Easy. Not much heavy. One week before the fight I was cutting weight too... Ngannou said, 'You can't do it, you may injure your back. No, no, no.' I can't miss."

Zhang Weili is the UFC's first-ever champion of Chinese origin and currently holds the No.2 rank in the women's strawweight division.