UFC: Zhang Weili ‘ready for anything’ as Joanna Jedrzejczyk targets her durability
- Chinese champion ‘hasn’t stopped moving’ since title win but is now getting ‘back to business’
- Zhang admits there is a target on her back – ‘everybody dreams of fighting the champion and winning a title’
It’s been over four months since Zhang “Magnum” Weili shook up the world of mixed martial arts but China’s first-ever UFC champion readily admits her feet are only just now touching down to the ground.
“Things have been very busy with interviews and activities all over the world,” Zhang says. “I have been getting messages and calls from everywhere and it feels like I haven’t stopped moving, but now I am able to get back to business and get back to fighting.”
Zhang’s refrain since winning the world strawweight title – with a 42-second TKO of Jessica Andrade – has been that raising the belt in Shenzhen was “only just the beginning”. If there were any lingering doubts about the enormity of the task now ahead they have been shaken off over the past week as the 30-year-old gets down to the dirty work of fight camp.
Ahead lies the first title defence for Zhang (20-1), against one of the fight game’s established greats in former strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk (16-3) at UFC 248 in Las Vegas on March 7.
This time around there’s no talk of the Chinese fighter coming in as underdog as she did against the more UFC-savvy Andrade (20-7). She also knows full well there will be a target on her back, now and forever more.
“Everybody dreams of fighting the champion and winning a title,” Zhang says. “So now that I am champion I have to be ready for everything. I know that I have a lot of work ahead but I think for me this is just the beginning.”
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Two months out from the Vegas showdown and the hype has shifted into overdrive, thanks to the footage released of Zhang working out at the Human in Motion Training Centre in Beijing. Thanks must also go to public pronouncements from the 32-year-old Jedrzejczyk, who defended her title five times before losing it to American Rose “Thug” Namajunas (8-4) in November 2017.
Jedrzejczyk told the UFC Undisputed podcast she recognised Zhang was a “a strong animal” but that her own conditioning and experience would prevail.
“I’m a real five-rounder,” the Polish star said. “My conditioning is always on point, and I will have to be very clever, very sneaky as well. I have to cut the angles, slip, counter, use my timing, my length, my reach, there is much more coming.”
UFC boss Dana White knows he’s on to a good thing with Zhang, given that demolition job on Andrade inside the Octagon and the impact that win has had outside the cage and across a Chinese public his organisation has worked hard to win over.
“If she can continue to defend that belt, she’s going to be a massive star. Maybe one of the biggest stars ever in UFC history,” White told ESPN.
For her part Zhang has eased – effortlessly, it seems from the outside – into the role of both champion and of standard-bearer for a sport that is still in its relative infancy in China.
Zhang’s proving to be both an engaging and entertaining interview subject and guest for international media outlets, traits of her character familiar to those who have witnessed her rise from a debut loss back in 2013 and on through now those 20 consecutive victories.
The UFC hosted a victory party for Zhang at their US$13 million Performance Institute in Shanghai not long after that wild night in Shenzhen and word soon spread about the address the fighter gave to both fans and emerging Chinese fighters gathered for the occasion.
“There are more fighters in China now and there are more coming,” Zhang says. “I want to show them what is possible and to talk to them about how much you can achieve in this sport.”
Now the focus is fully on Jedrzejczyk and on rounding out a skill set built on Zhang’s explosive power. Jedrzejczyk says Zhang’s style – with those heavy swinging arms – opens her up to quick counters, and questions the Chinese fighter’s durability should the fight go deep into the rounds.
Zhang might hold that shiny belt but she says she is still learning what the UFC is all about, four fights into her career with the promotion.
“I’m training every day,” Zhang says. “I have been watching her [Jedrzejczyk] for a long time and I know how she moves. I’ve been training for speed and for power, and for my footwork. No matter if it is grappling or wrestling I am ready for that too. I am ready for anything.”
