By:  | October 10, 2023 8:24 am

The UFC China card still doesn’t have a venue confirmed and the main event appears to have fallen through too. Song Yadong revealed that Petr Yan would no longer be able to compete with the Russian reportedly injured.

A bantamweight bout between Yan and Yadong had been penciled in to headline the event on December 9th. But that fight appears to have fallen through before it could even be announced.

Former champion

Yadong is currently ranked #7 while Yan is #5 which gives you an idea of the type of fight matchmakers were looking to put together. The latter is a former bantamweight champion who had fallen on hard times.

Meanwhile Yadong was scheduled to fight Rob Font at UFC 292. He pulled out of that fight with an undisclosed injury but appears to be back in training in China.

Yadong is coming off a win over Ricky Simon at UFC Vegas 72. He is based in Sacramento and trains at Team Alpha Male but was back in China recently and basically confirmed he was expecting to fight on December 9th in an Instagram video:

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All Chinese

Fans hoping that the eagerly anticipated all Chinese strawweight title fight between Weili Zhang and Yan Xiaonan would find its way onto this card will be disappointed to hear that Yadong is headlining. Having talked up the possibility of matching the two compatriots together Dana White appears to have cooled on the idea.

Zhang was crowned champion after beating Jessica Andrade in Shenzhen in 2019 in a night that will go down in the annals of Chinese MMA history. She has not fought in her homeland since.

For Xiaonan the wait to compete in China has been even longer, she last fought there in 2018. But with the likes of Sumudaerji and Mingyang Zhang on the card there will be plenty of local talent in action on December 9th.

Nothing has been officially announced yet but several matchups have leaked. The event just needs a venue, and a main event and then it should be good to go!