I just finished an article a few days ago talking about how UFC has lost a lot of its luster in my eyes because of an overabundance of events and I still think that is true.
That being the case, I do feel as though UFC tries their best to make the annual event at Madison Square Garden in New York City a special one and this card is a bit more stacked than most of the others that have taken place in 2025. Far too often the only event that I really care about is the main event and the ones leading up to it are just "meh" fights that I don't think most people really care who emerges victorious in.
In an ironic turn of events of the 6 fights on the main card, 3 of them are fights I really want to see. However, even though the main event is written as being between Jack Della Maddalena vs Islam Makhachev, I am much more looking forward to the second-to-last event, which is Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili.
There are a lot of reasons why I think this is the case and the main reason is that I feel like the advertised main event has a wonderful chance to be extremely boring thanks to Islam Makhachev always having the opportunity to be boring due to the tendency to take things to the ground and win via "lying on the ground points."
When we look at Shevchenko and Zhang both, there is absolutely nothing to dislike about either one of them.
Both are fantastic fighters, both have an amazing energy towards the sport and the fans, and both of them have been champions in their respective division multiple times. Zhang vacated her strawweight title in order to be eligible to fight against Shevchenko and I am certain that the management of the UFC had something to do with this since the competition in their respective divisions was starting to become stale. This is the superfight that fans of the sport have been itching for and I really don't feel as though there are two other people currently on the UFC roster than can bring the heat like these two can.
This has likely resulted in a massive payday for Zhang who has dominated her division to the point where her last 3 events were mostly against opponents whose names don't ring a bell when you see them and the fighters themselves, while ranked reasonably high, are not really on Zhang's level. Zhang hasn't lost a fights since late 2021 and she kind of ended the career of "JJ" Jedrzejczyk in 2022 with a dominant KO victory.
JJ was absolutely battered in this match and left the octagon looking like the Elephant Man with an absolutely massive bulge on her forehead from... i don't know what but it wasn't pretty. Zhang has always been gracious in victory and defeat and she doesn't do any dirty tactics. The same can be said of Shevchenco as well.
In their recent weigh-in and staredown, both women were polite and even though Dana White put his arm between them at one point there was no trash talking going on and there was no moves to get in a cheap shot like so many of the drama queens in the men's division will do in these situations. These two champions do not need the publicity that a meltdown at a presser will bring and Zhang had a big smile on her face the entire time.
They both have an amazing CV and it is important to take notice of the fact that at 35 and 37 years of age, both of them are getting close to retirement in a sport that favors the younger fighters... well, I think it is too early in the women's division to declare this because we haven't seen a "restocking" of talent in their ranks in any of the 3 weight divisions. Seriously, the women's side of things has been particularly disappointing as far as new talent is concerned.
There are many that are calling this the fight for the GOAT in the women's division although I would imagine that Amanda Nunes has a problem with that being the case. Ronda Rousey even came out of the woodwork to wish them both well after 10 years of being out of the sport and kind of avoiding talking about it. I think it would be really nice if she were to be in attendance at the event but she is probably afraid that the fans will boo her if she is there.
Speaking of Amanda Nunes, she has been talking about coming out of retirement and mark my words, whoever ends up winning this one is likely to end up facing her next. Unfortunately for the women's division, the fans just aren't that interested in any of the other talent but just like people are excited for this fight, they would be excited to see Nunes come and challenge whoever gets determined to be the GOAT by this fight.
But let's stay focused on the present for now. For me, this is the fight of the night that I am most looking forward to. In fact, I might not even watch the others depending on how my evening ends up going.
What about you? UFC 322 kicks off in just a few minutes!