“She is a black belt, I’m a white belt-” Xiaonan Yan couldn’t control her happiness post-UFC Vegas 61 victory

“She is a black belt, I’m a white belt-” Xiaonan Yan couldn’t control her happiness post-UFC Vegas 61 victory

Xiaonan Yan vs Mackenzie Dern

Xiaonan Yan just wrote a beautiful story of a surprising comeback for herself after going through back-to-back disappointing defeats from Marina Rodriguez and Carla Esparza and moving forward regardless to put on a dominating performance over Mackenzie Dern and winning via majority decision in the main event of UFC Vegas 61.

Yan is now 16-3 in her overall MMA career with Dern, Angela Hill, Claudia Gadelha, Karolina Kawolkiewicz, Viviane Pereira and many more. What’s next for Yan is not a part of her instant thoughts as of now, but the future has been brighter than the past for the Chinese MMA fighter, also representing Team Alpha Male from California. In her Octagon interview, Yan reacts to her win over Dern.

“I know her Jiu-Jitsu is amazing,” says Yan through the translator. “She’s a black belt, I’m a white belt so I know what I sort of expected in the fight. But I trained so hard, 4 times, 5 times on grappling during this camp. So I know I can do this… actually I didn’t train a lot on striking because I knew if the fight’s on standing, I can win that no matter what…” Yan continued with a relatively healthy smile on her face.

Also Read: UFC Vegas 61: Mackenzie Dern vs Yan Xiaonan full card results

Xiaonan Yan talks about the role of Team Alpha Male in her win over Mackenzie Dern

Mackenzie Dern vs Xiaonan Yan
Mackenzie Dern vs Xiaonan Yan

Yan opens up to ESPN MMA’s Megan Olivi about her downtime during the recent phase of her career before winning over Dern and how she used her disappointing performances to her fuel to get back to the winning side. Yan also had a few words of praise for her training spot, Team Alpha Male, led by head coach and UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber.

“I cannot be happier right now,” said Yan. “I lost my last 2 fights [before winning over Dern], a year ago, I didn’t feel that happy as right now, I was pretty low in the previous year but I worked so hard, just hoping this day would come back to me…” said an emotional Yan. “I feel very happy that I made the right choice, staying in the USA, training with Team Alpha Male, the whole team helped me a lot…” she continued.

Also Read: “Had A LOT of opportunities-” Mackenzie Dern nearly breaks down in tears reflecting on her loss to Xiaonan Yan at UFC Vegas 61

What do you think is next for Yan after this fight? Do you think she can become the second UFC fighter to become a champion after Zhang Weili? Yan is currently ranked #6 and will soon move to #5 after surpassing Dern in the official UFC strawweight rankings. A fight against former UFC champion Jessica Andrade can be the next most suitable step for Yan.

Also Read: “I messed up” – UFC Vegas 61 star Mackenzie Dern posts emotional message after heart-wrenching loss