UFC: Zhang Weili says she couldn’t sleep for 20 hours after Rose Namajunas loss, opens up on cyber-bullies
- Former strawweight champ insists she wanted to get an ‘old phone’ so she could ignore negative comments online
- ‘But [head coach] Cai [Xuejun] said you can’t live in your own vacuum. You need to accept this,’ Zhang says
Zhang Weili has revealed she struggled to sleep after her shock defeat by Rose Namajunas at UFC 261 in April, with her mind unable to accept the defeat nor deal with the negative comments online.
China’s “Magnum” (21-2) suffered a first-round head kick TKO in Jacksonville, Florida, losing the belt to the Lithuanian-American “Thug” (10-4) in her second title defence.
“The day after the match, day and night, I didn’t sleep for more than 20 hours,” Zhang said in the recent documentary My Bronze Age, which aired on Chinese streaming platform Tencent QQ.
“I couldn’t fall asleep at all. Once I closed my eyes, the moment when I fell down was replayed in my head. Every time when I closed my eyes I saw that moment.”
“I kept asking my head coach Cai [Xuejun] after the match, I said, ‘Cai, is the fight really finished? Did I really lose the belt?’” she added. “Everyone commented on this – haters, supporters, giving me all kinds of comments. It felt like I was being cyber-bullied at the time.
“I told Cai that I wanted to have an old phone, I don’t want to look at the internet and all the comments any more. Cai said you can’t live in your own vacuum. You need to accept this. You don’t need to care about the comments. Just do well and be myself.”
UFC: Namajunas says Zhang ‘so strange to me’ after blanking her
When Zhang returned to China, she realised she wasn’t mentally recovered after breaking into tears during a live-stream discussing the loss.
“My memory was brought back to the fight again, and I couldn’t help my thoughts again. I cried,” she said. “I wanted to tell everyone through the live-stream that I was well, I was OK.
“But when I was actually facing the fight and bringing my memory back to all the details, I felt like my scar was reopened. I was upset.”
The 32-year-old wanted to start training again immediately, but coach Cai made her realise she had to wait.
“Cai said, ‘no, we can’t rush right now’ Wait until you no longer have any resentment for the fight, that moment, then we can start over again,’” Zhang said.
“‘You must accept it peacefully. This acceptance can’t be faked’. Even if I think I’ve accepted the loss and if I used my resentment as momentum to fight, my mind would be interrupted in the cage.
“If you are angry you will have flaws. Once you’re angry, your movement can be out of form. You must have no feelings when you see the knockout again.”
