Dana White teases “fun fight” between Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk
It appears as though current women’s strawweight champion, Weili Zhang, may meet former champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk for her first title defense. And according to UFC President Dana White, it will be a “very fun fight” between the two.
Zhang captured the title in stunning fashion when she knocked out Jessica Andrade inside of a minute in the main event of UFC Shenzhen in August of this year. Since winning the title, Zhang has been open about several names she would like to face for her first title defense, but she has now set her immediate focus on Jedrzejczyk.
Jedrzejczyk made her return to strawweight this year after a brief move up in weight to compete for the then-vacant flyweight championship against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 231. After the loss to Shevchenko, Jedrzejczyk immediately got back into title contention with a fight against a top-ranked contender in Michelle Waterson at UFC Tampa, where she dominated her opponent over the course of five rounds. The former champion was pretty adamant about who she wanted to face next, which was Zhang for the strawweight title.
Since the fight with Waterson, Jedrzejczyk has continued to call Zhang out, even going as far as saying she would “make it to China and beat the [expletive] out of her”. It was that very comment that prompted a response from Zhang, who said she is “ready now” to face Jedrzejczyk and told her to call either her management or the aforementioned White to set the fight up.
It should be noted that Zhang was not interested in a fight with Jedrzejczyk at first, stating that she is not the “fighter she used to be”, but it is clear her sentiments have changed after months of back and forth on social media.
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For what it is worth, White absolutely loved the idea and posted a screenshot of Zhang’s message to Jedrezejczyk on his Instagram with a caption that captured his pure excitement over the potential fight.
At this time, there is no word on whether a fight between Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk is in the works, but with all parties involved apparently agreeing to it, it is only a matter of time before it is made official for an upcoming card in 2020.
