Natalia Silva and Wang Cong headline UFC 332 this Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, fighting for the women’s flyweight title (125 pounds, about 57 kilograms) that Valentina Shevchenko was forced to vacate because of injury. It is the first time since UFC 289 in 2023 that two women have headlined a numbered UFC card on their own.
A title opened up by Shevchenko’s injury
Valentina Shevchenko had to give up her belt after an injury expected to keep her out of the cage for up to a year. She was last seen in November, when she beat Zhang Weili at Madison Square Garden in what turned out to be her final title defense before the layoff. Whoever wins Saturday’s fight will face Shevchenko once she has recovered, turning this bout into a de facto final for the division’s near-term future.
Natalia Silva’s perfect run inside the Octagon
The 29-year-old Brazilian made her UFC debut in 2022 against Jasmine Jasudavicius in Austin, Texas. She has gone 8-0 inside the Octagon since, one win shy of Shevchenko’s division record win streak. Silva strung together finishes over Tereza Bleda and Victoria Leonardo, then wins over Andrea Lee and Viviane Araujo, before beating three former champions in a row: Jessica Andrade, Alexa Grasso and, most recently, Rose Namajunas.
Before the UFC, she won six straight fights by submission, five of them by armbar. Her taekwondo background gives her the speed and footwork that round out an already dangerous ground game. Her 90.3 percent takedown defense is the best in the division.
Wang Cong, the striker who already fought Shevchenko
The 34-year-old from China, who trains at the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai and with Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California, came up through professional kickboxing, where she fought Shevchenko more than a decade ago. She made her UFC debut in August 2024 by knocking out Victoria Leonardo in 62 seconds, the second-fastest finish in flyweight division history, earning a Performance of the Night bonus.
After a loss to Gabriella Fernandes in December 2024, she has won four straight: Bruna Brasil at UFC 312, then Ariane da Silva, Eduarda Moura and Tracy Cortez. She holds the division’s highest significant-strike accuracy at 58.2 percent and ranks second in strikes landed per minute, a striking profile built to contrast with Silva’s kicking game and her taekwondo-based footwork.
“This fight is definitely going to be exciting,” Wang said. “We will use our performance to shut them up.” Asked about Silva’s kicks, she said Silva “will be the first opponent I have to rely that heavily on the kicks.” On Shevchenko’s shadow over the division, a decade after they met in kickboxing, she said she is “probably going to have dreams about her.”
Already ranked the division’s No. 1 contender heading into the fight, a win would cap Natalia Silva’s near-flawless run since joining the UFC. For Wang Cong, beating Silva would erase her only loss in the promotion and send her straight into a title fight with Shevchenko, thirteen years after the two first met in a kickboxing ring.
A landmark night for the champions
This main event is the first time since UFC 289 in 2023, when Amanda Nunes beat Irene Aldana, that women have headlined a numbered UFC card by themselves. The fight closes out a fight week that has already produced a short-notice replacement bout and a heavyweight title picture shuffling around Alex Pereira, with Dana White set to reveal Pereira’s next opponent earlier in the same broadcast.
How to watch
The main card starts at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT (7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT) on Saturday, October 3, airing as a simulcast on Paramount+ and CBS with no additional pay-per-view fee. Prelims begin at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT, and early prelims at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, both streaming exclusively on Paramount+. In the UK, the main card starts at 1 a.m. BST Sunday, and at 2 a.m. CEST in Paris, Berlin and Madrid, with prelims airing from 11 p.m. BST Saturday. Check our 2026 UFC schedule and UFC rankings page for the full flyweight picture.
