Weili Zhang took a potentially difficult moment and turned it into a positive at UFC 300.
unconscious with a rear-naked choke before the end of the opening round in their strawweight title fight, the bout was allowed to continue. The fight ultimately went the full 25 minutes, but Zhang was able to persevere — even surviving a knockdown in Round 3 — to emerge with a relatively clear-cut unanimous decision triumph.
“I really thought that she was out, and I did not know how the referee was going to handle that. But she bounced back very quickly in the second round,” Zhang said through a translator at Saturday’s post-fight press conference.The UFC 300 co-main event marked the first time that two Chinese fighters squared off in the Octagon with a championship on the line. It’s something that Zhang can see becoming more common as MMA continues to progress in China.
Zhang is already a well-established star in the Las Vegas-based promotion. In addition to being one-half of an instant classic againstat UFC 248 in March 2020, “Magnum” has five victories in 115-pound title bouts — the second most all-time in the weight class. Despite her accomplishments, Zhang believes she still has work to do to be remembered as one of the greats.
However, Zhang is as much about the journey as she is the destination. Sometimes, the process to getting to fight night can be overlooked, she says.
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