Weili Zhang says she hasn’t watched her fight against Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248

UFC women’s strawweight champion Weili Zhang says she hasn’t watched her fight against Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 just yet.

Zhang defended her belt against Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 earlier this month. The two women put on an incredible showcase of heart, skill and determination in a 5-round war, which has now become widely regarded as the greatest fight in women’s MMA history.

UFC president Dana White called the fight “one of the best he has seen, period”.

Zhang won the fight via hard-fought and narrow split decision. Both fighters sustained some heavy visual injuries and have been healing since then. Following her loss, Jedrzejczyk has already stated that she wants to run it back against the champion.

However, Zhang isn’t interested in a rematch as of now. She recently talked to ESPN MMA about it:

“I have no clue when my next fight would be yet, since everything is stuck by this COVID-19 pandemic,” Zhang said. “I would like to fight here in the U.S. again, since I have seen a massive number of Chinese and Asian people here motivated by my fight who will definitely cheer for me. Also U.S. has the biggest MMA fan base. I don’t want the rematch yet. I would like to give opportunities to other fighters in line.”

Despite winning the fight, Zhang revealed that she was disappointed by her performance. In fact, it has even prevented her from watching the reply:

“I have not watched it yet, since I did not put on my best performance and showcase my best shape in training. I appreciate the support and recognition from all my fans, and I am glad they enjoyed the fight. Joanna and I both put on our toughness and will inside the Octagon to make the fight fascinating,” she said.

“People back in China are all very motivated and credit my hard work and show tons of respect to all athletes who compete for our country. Almost all mainstream media has interviewed me. I heard there were over 100 million views of the fight within 24 hours in China. So many fans jammed the Chinese pay-per-view website to watch it live, the server went down.”

Following her win over Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248, Zhang moved up in the women’s pound-for-pound rankings, overtaking the reigning UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko.

Shevchenko briefly commented on the fight, saying that she would gladly fight Zhang and believes that she would beat her “without difficulties”.

This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 28th March, 2020.