Yang Xiaonan admitted that Zhang Weili was seconds away from submitting her.
Last Saturday, Yan challenged strawweight champion Zhang for the title in the co-main event of UFC 300, losing by unanimous decision. However, the decision loss could also be seen as something of a mental victory for Yan, as Zhang nearly put Yan to sleep by targeting her with a rear-naked choke at the end of the first round.spoke through an interpreter on Wednesday's episode. MMA hourJan talked about how close the chalk was.
“She got my back and immediately got into a rear naked choke position,” Yan said. “But in that moment, I still believed I could keep it. Then when she wiped me down, I was facing the roof of the arena and I saw the clock on the big screen. 10 left. When I got to about a second, I thought, “Okay, I can do this round.'' But at the last moment, when the bell rang, I was at my wits' end. Like someone almost knocked me out. But I realized that I still needed to get up quickly and walked to my corner and gave it my all to show that I could still keep fighting. ”
Yang pointed out that he injured one of his thumbs before the fight, which he said made it easier for Zhang to get the choke.
Still, Yan admits he was close to disaster at the end of the round.
“I think if we give Weili another 10 seconds, I'm definitely going to be completely out,” Yang said. “But this is like any other game. [In a] If you shoot the ball in a basketball game [after] If you decide on a shot at the last moment, [doesn’t count]”
Eventually, Yan was able to get back to his feet after the round and returned to his corner, although clearly disoriented. During the break, the commentary team thought that Cutman had used stinky salts to resuscitate Yang, leading to confusion. This was an action that was not allowed under the rules. They eventually debunked that claim on air, but Yang said there was no truth to it at all.
“Honestly, I didn't notice what the cutman was doing between rounds because he was still recovering from the choke when he went back to the corner,” Yan explained. “The only thing I see is [coaches] Uriah [Faber] and danny [Castillo] They were standing there talking and I couldn't understand anything they said. I didn't realize what the cutman was doing. But there is no point in smelling salt. Definitely no one used those things to wake me up.
“What woke me up was water and ice poured over my head. It made my mind clearer.”
Yang said he was back to normal by the start of the second round, but in the end, Zhang knocked him down and nearly finished him with punches, resulting in a 10-8 loss. We suffered a crushing defeat. . However, despite a poor start to the match, Yang bounced back and won the third round, giving up a run to Zhang in the closing stages. He may not have done enough to win a decision, but it was enough to earn him some respect from UFC CEO Dana White and many new fans.
“I definitely feel the love from so many people,” Yang said. “Right after the fight, Dana came to the cage and came up to me and saw the 'Born to Fight' tattoo behind my ear. He said, 'Let me see your tattoo. Please.” I think he recognized my performance and thought I was born to fight.
“I went back to the gym today and everyone in the gym said to me, ‘We’re so proud of you.’” I’m proud of my performance, my heart, my will. You showed your desire for the championship. But I still lost the match, so I'm still a little sad and regret my performance. Because I believe that I can perform better in matches. But this is just a lesson. I will continue to strive to improve myself. ”
