Wang Cong Confirms Team Alpha Male Sparring Mixup Before UFC 332
Wang Cong confirmed a long-running gym story ahead of her vacant flyweight title fight, and she did not treat it as an insult. Asked at UFC 332 media day whether sparring partners at Team Alpha Male once thought she was a man and trained with her that way, she said the account was accurate.
“Yes, that’s true,” Cong said. The rest of the answer came through her camp as the exchange continued. “They will go easy against the other girls, but when they spar with her, they find the difficulty, in the level of striking, so they will go harder. They will even swing against her.”
The closer was the line her side wanted on the record. “She said, like, she’s be treated like boys in the gym.”
That is the whole claim. Cong did not name the partners. She did not say how long the mixup lasted. She did say the harder rounds came from her striking, not from a misunderstanding that never got corrected.
The timing is the part that matters for Saturday. Cong meets Natalia Silva for the vacant women’s flyweight title in the main event of UFC 332 on October 3 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. The belt opened after Valentina Shevchenko told the UFC she would be out for at least a year.
Silva is 20-5-1 and has won 14 in a row, including decisions over Rose Namajunas, Alexa Grasso, and Jessica Andrade. She is a perfect 8-0 in the UFC and walks in as the No. 1 flyweight. Cong is 10-1, ranked in the top 10, and riding four straight Octagon wins after an early loss.
The last of those wins is the one that put her here. Cong took a unanimous decision over Tracy Cortez at UFC 329 on July 11, the same card that featured the McGregor-Holloway rematch. Before that she beat Eduarda Moura, Ariane da Silva, and Bruna Brasil, all by decision. Her only UFC loss is a second-round rear-naked choke to Gabriella Fernandes in November 2024. Her debut was a 62-second knockout of Victoria Leonardo.
Team Alpha Male is the Sacramento room that has turned out title contenders for more than a decade. Cong’s answer framed the sparring story as a training advantage. Partners who went light with other women did not go light with her once the striking level showed up. She said they swung.
None of that changes the matchup. Silva has spent the streak beating former champions and staying on the feet for 15 minutes. Cong has spent the streak winning decisions after a finish in her debut and a submission loss in her second fight. The vacant belt is the first title either woman has fought for in the UFC.
Wang Cong’s media-day answer did not include a prediction. She confirmed the gym story, explained why the rounds got harder, and left the rest for Saturday. The main card is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+, with early prelims at 4 p.m. ET.
If the Team Alpha Male rounds were meant as preparation for a champion, this is the week they get tested. Silva has not lost since 2018. Cong has not lost since Macau. One of those streaks ends in Salt Lake City.
