Just a few weeks before the UFC closed its doors as the world stood still due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, fans were able to witness one of the biggest fights in the promotion's history at UFC 248.
On March 7, 2020, the UFC returned to the T-Mobile Arena as then-middleweight champions. Israel Adesanya defended his title in the UFC 248 main event against Yoel Romero.
Unfortunately, that fight flopped badly and is widely considered one of the most boring fights in UFC history.
Despite this, the main event saw a five-round war for the women's strawweight title as Weili Zhang looked to defend her title against consensus weight GOAT, Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Weili Zhang leaves Joanna Jedrzejczyk unrecognizable after a five-round war
After making five title defenses in the division, the Pole earned her title as the greatest strawweight fighter of all time, but her reign came to an unfortunate end in 2017 when she was defeated by Rose Namajunas.
Several fights later, where he couldn't string together back-to-back wins, she got another title shot at UFC 248 in what was Weili's first title defense.
Before the fight, Zhang had to overcome multiple obstacles related to the COVID-19 pandemic and even had to change the location of her camp several times so that she could obtain a US visa.
Although it was believed that Joanna was nearing the end of her career due to her string of results leading up to the title fight, there was still a widespread understanding that she could still be a huge threat due to her skills.
From the opening horn, the former strawweight queen showed she was just that, immediately taking the fight to 'Magnum' Weili.
After two great rounds, Weili started landing clean blows to Joanna's forehead midway through the third round, causing visible swelling.
By the fifth and final round, Jedrzejczyk looked completely unrecognizable as her head had doubled in size and she took the damage from five incredibly tough and close rounds.
Weili went on to retain the title with a split-decision victory, with the fight considered one of the greatest fights ever and by far the greatest female MMA fight in the history of the sport.
What's next for Weili Zhang?
Four years later, and after losing and regaining the strawweight title, the 35-year-old champion still rules the 115lb division.
Earlier this year, at UFC 300, Zhang defended her title in one of the biggest women's fights ever, when she took on compatriot Yan Xiaonan.
Weili successfully defended her title after dominating Xiaonan for five rounds. It was recently announced that 'Magnum' will defend her title at UFC 312 on February 8 against undefeated Tatiana Suarez.
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