Weili Zhang reveals how devastated Joanna Jedrzejczyk was by the loss: ‘She kept crying for hours’

UFC women’s strawweight champion Weili Zhang talked about the emotional loss felt by Joanna Jedrzejczyk following UFC 248.

Zhang put her UFC women’s strawweight title on the line against Joanna Jedrzejczyk in the co-main event at UFC 248. The bout was absolutely action packed from the opening bell all the way through to the end of the 5th round. Both women threw nearly 800 strikes between them throughout their 5-round battle. It’s now widely regarded as the greatest women’s MMA fight in history. UFC president Dana White even called it “one of the best fights he has seen, period”.

There was clear animosity between the two fighters heading into the bout. Jedrzejczyk had joked about the coronavirus, which had affected Zhang’s training camp. Zhang had taken digs at her opponent in the lead up to the fight, suggesting that she would not make weight due to her breast augmentation surgery.

In the end, the sport of mixed martial arts is driven by passion and fighters understand this. Following the UFC 248 event, both, Zhang and Jedrzejczyk attended the same hospital and shared the same bed space.

Zhang recently talked about the encounter she had with Jedrzejczyk at the hospital, revealing how clearly devastated Jedrzejczyk was with her loss:

“After the match, Joanna and I, we both met at the hospital. We arrived at the hospital almost at the same time. There was just a curtain between us,” Zhang said.

“She kept crying for hours. I feel very sad. I especially wanted to comfort her. But the language barrier, I can only tell her, “Good job! You did very well. You are very good.” Then she kept crying, covering her head,” Zhang continued.

“And I feel very sad, to be honest. Although she was disrespectful to me before. But I saw her injury while crying. I felt bad for her. Then I talked to her. Then when she left — I am waiting for the examination — when she left, she told me this and I was particularly moved, she said: ‘Keep defending and I will watch you’ she said, ‘Keep defending and I will watch you. It will get harder and harder.’ I almost shed tears. At that time, I felt the warrior should be like this.” she concluded.

Since then, the former champion has already stated that she would want to run it back with “tough b*tch” Weili Zhang.

This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 13th March, 2020.