Silva vs. Wang Cong: UFC 332 women's flyweight title fight set for Sunday

Taekwondo fighter Natalia Silva of Brazil and Chinese wushu sanda specialist Wang Cong will clash for the vacant UFC women's flyweight (56.7 kg) title.

UFC 332: Silva vs. Wang Cong takes place Sunday (Korean Standard Time) at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. In the main event, No. 1-ranked Silva (20-5-1) meets No. 8 "Joker" Wang Cong (10-1) in a title fight made necessary after champion Valentina Shevchenko vacated the belt due to injury.

The two fighters bring sharply contrasting martial arts backgrounds to the cage. Silva took up taekwondo at 16 through a community project and earned her black belt before making her MMA debut at 18. She claimed the Jungle Fight flyweight title in Brazil at 22 and has since reeled off 14 consecutive MMA victories, including eight straight since joining the UFC in 2022.

Wang Cong began training wushu sanda at 16 and went on to win gold at the 2013 World Wushu Championships and at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. In 2015, she defeated future UFC champion Shevchenko at Kunlun Fight in China. After a stint in boxing, she transitioned to MMA in 2022, entered the UFC through the 2024 Road to UFC tournament, and now carries a four-fight winning streak and a 5-1 UFC record.

Wang Cong tends to absorb punishment in exchange for overwhelming her opponents with volume, while Silva relies on active footwork and taekwondo kicks to maintain distance and land counters before moving out of range.

Silva said she is not afraid of a brawl. "If I can become champion without getting hit, that would be great," she said at media day, "but I've done a lot of striking sparring with male fighters in the gym, so I don't mind if it turns into a war."

Wang Cong was equally unfazed by Silva's movement. "I've fought similar opponents before — fast, lots of movement," she said. "If Silva wants to run, I'll be happy to chase her."

Grappling could prove another decisive factor. Silva, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, has seven submission victories in MMA. "Pure striking and MMA are different — there's grappling and many other elements beyond just punching," she said, emphasizing her all-around experience. Wang Cong, however, predicted the fight would ultimately be decided on the feet. "Silva's grappling is decent, but the striking will decide this," she said.

The co-main event features bantamweight No. 9 Davison Figueiredo (38, Brazil) against No. 12 Payton Talbott (28, United States). Former KSW welterweight and middleweight champion Roberto Soldic (31, Croatia) makes his UFC debut against Chaos Williams (32, United States). Ateba Gautier (24, Cameroon), riding a 10-fight winning streak, takes on Roman Kopylov (35, Russia), a former Combat Sambo world champion.

The UFC 332 main card streams live on Tving from 9 a.m. Sunday, with the undercard beginning at 7 a.m.