UFC women’s strawweight contender Denise Gomes reacted following her insane elbow KO win over Yan Xiaonan at UFC Shanghai.
The Brazilian Gomes brutally finished the Chinese native Yan on enemy territory with a step-in elbow in the first round that knocked her foe right to the mat.
It was Gomes’s fifth straight win, and it puts her in the upper echelon of title contenders at 115 lbs in the UFC.
Denise Gomes Reacts to KO Win
Taking to her social media following UFC Shanghai, Gomes shared her reaction after her outstanding knockout win over Yan.
“Time to update: Denise Ninaja! We crushed it!” Gomes wrote on her Instagram.
What’s Next for Denise Gomes?
This was, by far, the biggest win of Gomes’s UFC career, and it’s the kind of win that should get her very close to a title shot against UFC women’s strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern.
Gomes has won five straight fights, and she is 7-2 overall in the UFC with four finishes, which is a higher-than-average finishing rate in the UFC women’s strawweight division.
More likely than not, Dern will next defend her title against former champion Weili Zhang, who is said to be returning to 115 lbs after a failed bid to move up to 125 lbs and take out Valentina Shevchenko last year.
If Gomes doesn’t get the next title shot, then there are a couple of really intriguing matchups against grapplers at the top of the weight class who she could fight next.
For instance, the UFC could book her against Tatiana Suarez in a No. 1 contender’s bout at 115 lbs. She could also fight Virna Jandiroba or Gillian Robertson, too.
The Yan fight was a favorable stylistic matchup for Gomes because she was fighting a fellow striker who was willing to stand and trade with her. These grapplers at the top of the rankings are unlikely to do that, as they will want to take her down to the ground and take her out of her comfort zone on her feet.
We’ll see who the matchmakers give Gomes next, but she is likely one win away from the belt.
Denise Gomes Reacts to Insane Elbow KO at UFC Shanghai