UFC 300
Fight Coverage
Coach Conversation | Zhang Weili vs Yan Xiaonan
Factory X Muay Thai’s Marc Montoya Offers His Thoughts And Insights On Saturday’s Strawweight Title Fight
Ahead of every championship fight, UFC staff writer E. Spencer Kyte will sit down with one the sharpest coaching minds in the sport to break down the action and provide UFC fans with insights into each championship pairing from the men that spend their days getting these elite athletes prepared to compete on the biggest stage in the sport.
In advance of the historic all-Chinese strawweight title clash between champion Zhang Weili and challenger Yan Xiaonan, Kyte spoke with Marc Montoya, head coach at Factory X Muay Thai in Edgewood, Colorado about the dynamics of the UFC 300 co-main event.
Best Trait of Each Fighter
Zhang vs Yan Co-Main Preview | UFC 300
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Zhang vs Yan Co-Main Preview | UFC 300
/
Kyte: At a time in the sport where everyone is pretty solid everywhere, generally speaking, what is the one thing that each of these competitors do better than anyone else? What is the one element to their game that stands out the most?
Montoya: I think when you look at Zhang Weili, one of the things that really stands out is experience. She’s been in there, she’s really been through the fire; she’s been forged a little bit and she’s felt the pressure of some of the best in the world. I think that is one thing that absolutely pays dividends for her.
The other thing I would say is just her IQ. From experience, you’re gonna grow your IQ and I think when you have an experienced athlete like she is, that’s been in there, been in high pressure situations and embraced them, her IQ is gonna grow — I don’t mean failure only in terms of victory and defeat; I mean the moments that you win, the moments that you lose in there.
UFC 300 COUNTDOWN: Full Episode | Pereira vs Hill | Zhang vs Yan | Gaethje vs Holloway
I think she’s had some big moments. She’s had some moments where she’s had to learn from and I feel like that is gonna pay absolute dividends for her. The other thing is the magnitude of that card is big — it’s one of the biggest events of the year, and so being able to handle all the outside distractions is something that is a strength and gonna be in her favor because she’s been in these situations and learned how to handle this.
The biggest thing I would say in general is that she has some good experience going into this thing, both good and bad, and that’s a big thing.
Zhang Weili | Best Finishes
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Zhang Weili | Best Finishes
/
Kyte: And what about Yan Xiaonon?
Montoya: I think the biggest thing is that sometimes with those fresh eyes, there is an advantage there. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know, and that can actually work in your favor some times.
Preview Every Fight On This Historic Card
I think that is something that is playing in her favor, and I think like we were talking about with Zhang Weili, Yan has got to go in there invigorated that “I’m getting this opportunity of a lifetime.” Not knowing what you don’t know sometimes can be an advantage.
Speed and power are the two things you have to look at in any fight. When you’re talking women’s fighting, they don’t all carry speed and power, but these two do, and I think it gives Yan a chance to rely on her strengths, which are her speed and power.
She’s going to have to adjust to Zhang Weili’s speed and power — it’s almost a mirror image that she’s fighting, I would say, and I think in a way that’s good because she knows herself really well.
Kyte: To that experience side, you were in (Anthony Smith’s) corner, coached him for a long time as he worked his way up the ranks and into that title fight — how do you prepare somebody for that thing they haven’t done yet?
RELATED: The History Of Chinese Fighters in The UFC
He’d been in a ton of fights, been in some main events, but never a title fight; never something of that magnitude. What were things that you guys focused on or that coaches in this situation, as Danny Castillo is going to be with Yan Xiaonan, pointed out ahead of the fight?
Montoya: Whether it’s been training Anthony for that, training Brandon Royval for that, training Joe Warren for that, training Rob Wilkinson, who won the PFL title, there are many examples where, as a coach, we’ve gone through it.
I think any time you have that as an opportunity, one of the biggest things is that you just need to embrace that situation. Being able to be in that position is not ever given — it’s always earned — and so just reminding them that “You didn’t luck out. It wasn’t a popularity contest. You earned your way into this position.”
I think sometimes when people talk about these situations, they talk a lot about feelings, and I think feelings are good for some things, but the question you’re asking me is one of the things I’ve always done in any of the title fights, win or lose, that we’ve had; we talk about the facts.
UFC 300: Every Champion On UFC 300 | Watch The UFC 300 Promo | Justin Gaethje Loves The Unknowns Of Fighting | Max Holloway Just Wants To Build His Legacy | BMF Title Lineage
What are the facts here? How did we get here? What have you done to get here? Who have you beaten? What did it look like? When you were 20, was this what you wanted?
The answer is always “Yes” and so bringing facts into it lends perspective, and ultimately, it narrows itself down to — I think the question you’re asking, that everyone asks is “What is the pressure of this thing gonna feel like and can they handle it?”
Ultimately, when you digest all that stuff, essentially what you’re getting at is that this pressure is a privilege and you’ve wanted this your whole life, so let’s not shy away from this moment.
It takes more than that — other discussions, more discussions — but, in a nutshell, that’s what we’re getting at.
READ: Yan Xiaonan’s Journey To The Title
Kyte: Yeah, that is exactly the thing we all think about — “How is this person that hasn’t been here going to deal with it?” — and what you’re saying about taking the feelings, taking the emotions out of it, remind yourself that it’s earned, is a pretty good approach.
Montoya: Don’t be scared of this position that you dreamed of, because this is the dream. You dreamed of this, now let’s make it a reality. Let’s dive into this thing like we did in order to get here.
Path to Victory for Each Fighter
Kyte: Everyone would love a 10-second knockout or a quick submission, but that’s not often how these things go, especially not at the championship level. Instead, it’s usually the competitor that has crafted the better game plan and did the better job of executing things inside the Octagon that comes away with their hand raised and the gold around their waist.
So, how does either woman get it done on Saturday night?
Montoya: Like I said earlier, they both have speed and power, so I think the path to victory is who can trick who better?
What I mean by that is that they both have speed and power, so can they use that as an advantage to make what they just did look like the same thing, but then find something else?
They’re both seasoned athletes, so that’s not easy, but because of the magnitude of that fight, it’s ultimately going to come down to who can trap-set and trick the other one because they’re both very well-seasoned.
I would say that’s the key to that fight, for sure.
X Factor
Kyte: If there were one thing that was going to significantly impact how this fight plays out — that swings it in one direction or the other — what would it be?
Montoya: I would say experience, and I don’t just mean high level experience; I mean life experience.
The high level experience in the competition is going to matter, but there are going to be moments in there that you lose, and there are going to be moments in there where you’re winning. Even when you lose a match or a fight or a game, you’re gonna win some of that exchange in there and you’re gonna lose some of that exchange in there, but how do you react?
I think that’s the biggest thing — can they draw on experience and not get lost in the situation that is going on? Can they not get overly frustrated when a game plan is not working? Can they make an adjustment cageside?
I think one of the things that happens a lot that people don’t know because they’re not in there doing it, regularly, is that a lot of times, fights are won absolutely by the initial game plan, but then the quick corrections and adjustments coming from cageside, athlete and corner or corner and athlete, however you want to look at that.
I always tell the athletes, “I can see what you can’t see, but I can’t feel what you can feel, so we have to have good synergy.” So how do we make that adjustment?
I think they’re both gonna come in with good game plans, but the cageside adjustment is gonna be the advantage for whomever wins.
One Coaching Curiosity
Kyte: Coaches see the sport differently and look at the sport differently than anyone else, picking up on different things and paying attention to movements, habits, or intangible pieces that others might not notice, but that could have a significant impact on the action inside the Octagon.
Every matchup offers its own unique collection of elements that might pique a coach’s interest and get them paying a little closer attention to once the fight gets underway.
So what is that one thing in this matchup?
Montoya: One of the things I’m curious about because they both have speed and power is can they sustain a pace that is manageable and take it through the entirety of the fight, if needed?
The women’s divisions have a tendency to go the full amount of rounds, and because of speed and power, will the pace be lower or can one trick the other, make cageside adjustments to up the pace, and make it a less than full contest, find some type of finishing opportunity?
That’s the question I have: is there going to be an adjustment there to maintain pace because if they respect each other too much, because they have comparable attributes, will it just be “I hit you, you hit me, I hit you, you hit me, and then I hit you a couple more times and I win a decision.”
Kyte: Will it be five rounds of back-and-forth or can someone do something to change that up?
Montoya: They both have the ability to do it because they both have that speed and power, but when you’re out there and feel that, does it back you off and make you try to not lose the fight or do you find ways, traps, adjustments to find a finish?
That’s the ultimate game we play. It’s a hard one to play, for sure, but that would be one of the things I’m looking for, for sure.
Kyte: In terms of that question of making adjustments and finding that thing that can differentiate between the two, when an athlete isn’t able to — whether they don’t see it or don’t listen to the direction and make that choice — where do you typically attribute that coming from?
Is it “I don’t want to take the risk” or an inability to get out of that gear?
Montoya: I think sometimes what happens is they don’t necessarily recognize it when they’re in there. Sometimes when you talk to them after the fact, they shifted into a mode where they were trying not to lose, rather than in a mode of “Let’s go win a fight!”
Sometimes when you go try to win a fight, you lose, because you got caught or something weird happens, and so it’s easier said than done, especially when you’re not the one in there.
But the reason I think that is being said to those athletes — “Man, we gotta go!” — is the coach has seen it happen in preparation, in practice, in sparring, and drilling. Again, they didn’t get into this position because of luck, so they’ve had to go before; they’ve had to dig deep and win a fight.
You’re calling on some of the past that you’ve seen, but what happens is they get in a mode where they just don’t have the wherewithal — maybe they got cracked, because that happens, too — and their survival mode comes on, and they’re just functioning.
Ultimately, the quick version, is that they try not to lose instead of go win, and the risk of going to win is what holds them back, because the risk of going to win can get you beat. But what I’ve always said in the past is, “Would you rather leave the cage disappointed with yourself, knowing you had more in the tank or you went for it, but you still lost?”
It’s such a quandary when it comes to fighting. It’s such a tough sport.
UFC 300: Pereira vs Hill took place live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 13, 2024. See the final Prelim and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
Tags
