Even after losing the 115-pound strap, Joanna Jedrzejczyk has maintained her championship attitude.
Now, the former strawweight queen is set to meet the new generation in champion Weili Zhang on March 7 at UFC 248. MMAFighting first reported the news. It confirmes UFC president Dana White’s post that the promotion were looking to book the fight in the new year.
It’ll be Zhang’s first defense of her newly won title, which she claimed by stunningly beating Jessica Andrade in August. The fight with Jedrzejczyk will be her fifth contest inside the UFC.
Zhang’s contest with Jedrzejczyk also has an interesting subtext in terms of marketability.
For quite some time, Jedrzejczyk had an air of invincibility around her in the weight class, marked by her dominant performances as champion. In her two losses to Rose Namajunas, however, that aura was somewhat fractured. A reclaiming of her title would put suggestions her best days are behind her to ground.
Meanwhile, in Zhang, the UFC have a champion (and therefore an ‘in’) for the incredibly valuable Chinese market, who was notably booked against Andrade in her home country of China.
As of yet, UFC 248 hasn’t got an announced venue.
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