UFC Shanghai (Walker vs. Zhang) Previews

The UFC Shanghai card will feature twelve bouts, all of which will be previewed in this post. The card will be headlined by a light heavyweight matchup between Johnny Walker (pictured top left) and rising Chinese contender, Zhang Mingyang (pictured top right). The co-main event will be a five-round fight between featherweight contender, Brian Ortega (pictured lower left), and former bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling (pictured bottom right).

A fighter’s CC win probabilities are based off of a fighter’s Cage Calculus (CC) Rating and their place in the CC Rankings. A fighter’s CageCalc+ Score is determined by a variety of factors and is specific to each matchup. The CageCalc+ projection is an estimated win probability based on this statistic. Each fighter’s new CC Ratings after their bouts will be determined by the first CC win probability only.

Also featured below their record and rating is their divisional rankings in the CC Rankings and the official UFC Rankings. Any fighter falling outside of the top 15 of their respective division is classified as NR (not ranked).

Also displayed to the right of their rankings is a fighter’s CCz Score. A positive CCz Score indicates a fighter is above average for their weight class. A negative one indicates they are below average. The higher the number is, the farther away from average a fighter is (in either direction). CCz Scores typically range from as high as positive 4, to as low as negative 2.5.

The fighter’s name highlighted in green at the bottom of the panel indicates the editor’s pick to win. The numbers above each fighter’s name indicates their posted odds to win on FanDuel Sportsbook as of the posting of these previews.

Without further ado, here is the Cage Calculus tale of the tape for this week’s fights!

UFC Shanghai (Walker vs. Zhang) Previews – August 23, 2025

Diyar Nurgozhay vs. Uran Satybaldiev