BJ Penn: “China is going to have a lot of great champions.”

Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn believes Weili Zhang is the first of many future champions from China.

Zhang needed only 42-seconds to finish Jessica Andrade in last weekend’s UFC Shenzhen main event, capturing the promotions coveted 115-pound title in the process.

‘The Prodigy’ recently sat down with TSN‘s Aaron Bronsteter, where he touched on a number of topics, one of them being Weili Zhang’s title-earning victory over Andrade.

BJ Penn explained that he was not only super impressed by the UFC’s new strawweight champion but he also believes that fight fans will see many more champions from China in the future.

“Yes, it is amazing. And yes, my mother is half Korean and half Native Hawaiian. And I do, I like to see the different, even the Korean fighters, they’re really good and really strong. But man, that is amazing Zhang Weili. I saw her in the staredowns before the fight and she looked like a beast.” BJ Penn said. “Then she just went in there, and Andrade, we all know how tough she is, and Weili just went in there and wiped Andrade out. So man, that is just amazing. I believe it, you know I saw one of the fighters interviews and he said ‘Now everybody will see how powerful China is in MMA’ and I believe it. They are going to come on strong, just like Russia did. Russia came on strong. It’s going to be another one. China, Russia, Brazil and USA. Of course, you have all those smaller, well they seem like they are smaller countries like England and different places. Canada of course is good too. They are another big good one. So yea, China is going to have a lot of great fighters and a lot of great champions.”

Do you agree with BJ Penn that China will produce more UFC champions like Weili Zhang? If you had to pick another Chinese fighter on the UFC roster that could become a future title holder who would it be? Sound off in the comments section PENN Nation!