UFC 332 was a wild card with a record number of knockouts, but the women’s flyweight title fight between Natalia Silva and Wang Cong didn’t follow suit. Instead of that lasted five rounds and looked more like a Fight Night midcard than a UFC main event headliner.
It’s fitting because that’s exactly what it was – while Natalia Silva was a legitimate No. 1 contender, Wang had never fought a premiership in her UFC career prior to Salt Lake City. If it weren’t for the UFC’s desperate need for gold at the top of every major card, they wouldn’t have asked Valentina Shevchenko. loosen your belt to do this fight.
So it shouldn’t be surprising Wang seemed underprepared and was easily confused in his fight with Silva, rushing into endless collisions instead of keeping his Brazilian opponent on the end of his punches. Silva was content to hit his combinations and move backwards, making a a less than exciting dance.
“I think when Wang goes back and watches the film, he’s going to hate himself,” UFC CEO Dana White said at the UFC 332 post-fight press conference. “If he had hit the gas a little earlier, it would have been a very different fight. It was close.”
Now we hear from Wang, who says a first-round jab changed his performance.
“Thank you for supporting my friends. The game is gone,” Cong said on social media in Chinese, with English subtitles included in the video. “Too bad. I’m a little sorry.”
“Then because of the first (round), my eye got stuck in the second half,” he continued. “Line of sight was blocked, wait until later to slow down. It’s too slow to enter. Where you fall, get up. Go back and recap. Come and try again.”
Cong certainly picked up steam in the second half of the fight, with one judge giving him the third round and another giving him the fourth and fifth rounds. Still, Silva did just enough to fight back on all three scorecards, earning a 49-46, 48-47, 48-47 unanimous decision. For those hoping the fight would inject excitement into the women’s 125-pound division, it wasn’t great. But we are used to it now.