5 Fighters Poised To Take Conor McGregor’s Place As The Face Of UFC

While she isn't as well known as some of the other fighters on our list, China's Zhang Weili is an interesting dark horse candidate to become the next big thing in the UFC.

Despite having fought only four times in the promotion, the talented striker has already managed to capture the UFC Women's Strawweight Championship.

For years, the UFC has been trying to make waves in the Chinese market. In fact, they recently build a multi-million dollar, state of the art performance institute in Shanghai. This new institute happens to be three times larger than the one in the United States. This shows the company is committed to developing talent in the region and ultimately making a good portion of the nation's 1.4 billion residents bona fide UFC fans.

Now that they have a homegrown champion to promote, the UFC was a new tool in their arsenal to help them make headway in the world's most populous nation. The fact that Weili is the only relevant Chinese fighter at the moment, means she will get that much more attention.

UFC will likely put a lot of effort into promoting Zhang Weili in 2020. If she can hold onto the title and continue to grow her fanbase in a country with around 1.4 billion inhabitants, the sky's the limit.