Joanna Jedrzejczyk believes that health issues prevented Jessica Andrade competing at 100% in her title defense against Weili Zhang.
Going into the Zhang fight, Andrade was coming off a 2nd-round knockout win over Rose Namajunas, a win that allowed her to capture the UFC Women’s Strawweight title. She went to battle in enemy territory for her 1st-title defense against Zhang at UFC Shenzhen. Going into the fight, Zhang was just 3-0 in the UFC at the time.
Prior to the fight, a lot of fighters and fans had Andrade winning this matchup. Regardless, things did not go the way many had thought. As soon as the opening bell rang, Zhang went forward and hurt the Brazilian early. After a vicious barrage of punches and knees she stopped Andrade via TKO in 42 seconds.
It was a very strong performance by Weili Zhang, but Joanna Jedrzejczyk wasn’t 100% impressed by it. She says that going into the fight, she had heard Andrade was experiencing difficulties with her weight cut.
“I don’t want to take anything from Weili because she shocked the world and beat Andrade. But, I don’t think Andrade was 100 percent and what I heard that she had a pretty rough fight week in China before their fight,” Jedrzejczyk told BJPENN.com. “The weight cut, re-hydration, you could tell Andrade was not herself. Weili is a very dangerous fighter, though.”
Zhang is looking to make her 1st-title defense against Joanna Jedrzejczyk in the co-main event of UFC 248. Pundits have the Polish fighter as the underdog in this fight, but the former champion still plans to make Zhang quit and reclaim the UFC Women’s Strawweight title.
It’s not know whether or not Andrade had difficulties making weight for her fight against Zhang. Jedrzejczyk believes that played a part in Zhang getting the win, but admits that the champion is still a dangerous fighter.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 5th March, 2020.
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