Joanna Jędrzejczyk took on Weili Zhang for the UFC women’s strawweight title in last night’s UFC 248 event, suffering a close split-decision loss.
Jedrzejczyk is a former UFC women’s strawweight champion, having held the title from 2015 through to 2017. In that time the Polish champion defended her belt 5 times with victories over the likes of Carla Esparza, Jessica Penne, Valérie Létourneau, Cláudia Gadelha, Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Jéssica Andrade. She lost the title during her 6th defense against “Thug” Rose Namajunas, who defeated the longest reigning UFC women’s strawweight champion via 1st-round TKO at UFC 217. This was Jedrzejczyk’s 1st loss since joining the UFC roster and she would see a repeat of it in her next fight, losing to Namajunas via unanimous decision in their rematch at UFC 223. The former champion was able to get back in the win column following her back-to-back losses against Namajunas with a win over Tecia Torres. She would go on to challenge Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title in a fight that she lost by unanimous decision at UFC 231 in 2018. Since then, Jedrzejczyk was able to get back to her winning ways with a victory over Michelle Waterson, which set her up for a title shot against Weili Zhang.
Her opponent, Weili Zhang was signed by the UFC in 2018 and quickly rose through the ranks, stringing together wins over Danielle Taylor, Jessica Aguilar and Tecia Torres before getting a title shot against the former UFC women’s strawweight champion Jessica Andrade. She dismantled Andrade in less than a minute in the very 1st round, becoming the first ever Chinese UFC champion. Zhang stepped in the Octagon last night at UFC 248 with an overall MMA record of 20-1.
The two women met in the Octagon last night at UFC 248, putting on an exhilarating display of heart, skill and dedication. The contest was viewed by many as the greatest fight in women’s MMA history, including the famed UFC commentator Joe Rogan. You can watch the highlights from last night’s action packed co-main event and see how other fighters reacted to it here.
Unfortunately for Jedrzejczyk, she lost a close split decision to Zhang after 5 action packed rounds of fighting. She gave a quick interview to UFC commentator Joe Rogan after the fight, where she had the following to say:
“Yeah, you see my swollenness. I felt this.” Jedrzejczyk said referring to the hematoma on her forehead. “She did great. There was something missing, but I felt all the punches from the third round. The swollenness was bothering me. And I felt it just get more and more swollen. So my head was like going on and off. But all good. Congrats champ and I am very happy that we gave a good fight.”
“Not really,” she said in response to being asked if she was surprised by Zhang. “I was ready for anything and everything. We both put on a hell of a performance. I am proud of myself and of my team.”
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 8th March, 2020.
Discussion about this post