Wang Cong has heard the criticism around the card she's headlining Saturday, but she thinks fans will backtrack on their words once she's done with her work in the octagon.
UFC 332 (Paramount+) takes place at Delta Center in Salt Lake City. This event, which is headlined by a women's flyweight bout between Cong (10-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Natalia Silva (20-5-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC), has been heavily criticized online for its quality. Cong and Silva are fighting for the belt Valentina Shevchenko vacated due to injury.
The Chinese fighter is not paying much mind to what's been said, but she does plan to silence those critics come fight night.
"I don't think it's unfair or whatever," Cong told MMA Junkie. "I think the UFC has a plan, so they must have something
going. I think we will shut their mouths with my performance."
Cong holds a win over Valentina Shevchenko in a 2015 kickboxing fight. When she joined the UFC, she envisioned herself taking the belt from Shevchenko, who has positioned herself as the greatest women's flyweight in the history of the sport. Cong didn't expect a title shot would come under these circumstances, but this doesn't mean her fight with Shevchenko won't come in the future.
"Originally, I thought I would challenge Valentina for the belt, but it's all right," Cong said. "Now it's my time to get the belt and then have her challenge me in the future."
When a champion vacates, fans often don't look at the new champion as the real No. 1 fighter in the division. Cong feels she doesn't need to beat Shevchenko to prove she's the best, she just needs that UFC belt around her waist.
"I don't feel I need to prove myself in beating her to feel like the real flyweight champion," Cong said. "She's just herself. Xhe's not like unbeatable or whatever. That's what my thought is."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: How Wang Cong plans to 'shut mouths' of UFC 332 critics
