China’s Zhang “Magnum” Weili took fight of the year honours for her amazing tilt with Polish former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 in March in Las Vegas. The bout went five rounds and was filled to the brim with wild exchanges and little defence as the two strawweights battled hard right until the final bell. Weili took the decision as she controlled most of the fight and held the centre of the ring for many of the rounds. Both fighters had to be taken to hospital afterwards and Jedrzejczyk had a gruesome-looking hematoma on her forehead. UFC commentator Joe Rogan called it the fight of the year while the bout was still going on. During a tough year for the sporting world, the 12th World MMA Awards, produced by Fighters Only, did not have much to choose from given the UFC held most of the high-profile MMA fights. The voters gave Zhang’s fight top honours over Israel Adesanya vs Kelvin Gastelum (UFC 236), Josh Emmett vs Shane Burgos (UFC on ESPN 11), Dustin Poirier vs Dan Hooker (UFC on ESPN 12) and Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington (UFC 245). According to the fight statistics, Zhang landed fewer total and significant strikes than Jedrzejczyk, but had the only takedown. Zhang also threw more punches, with more than 800. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Weili Zhang 张伟丽 (@zhangweilimma) The victory was the Chinese superstar’s first defence of the strawweight belt after beating Jessica Andrade a year ago in Shenzhen. That fight was a quick one, with Zhang claiming the victory in 41 seconds. Zhang does not have a confirmed fight for 2021 yet, but it is largely believed the 31-year-old will square off against “Thug” Rose Namajunas. Reigning UFC middleweight champion Adesanya and BMF winner Jorge Masvidal were multiple award winners with “The Last Stylebender” taking the top two fighters of the year categories.