The UFC 248 co-main event between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk more than lived up to the pre-fight billing levied upon it by Dana White, as well as thoroughly outshining the men who fought in the main event.
Through five rounds, both fighters exchanged heavy leather and in a fight apparently decided by infinitesimal margins, it was the Chinese champion who had her hand raised by split decision when all was said and done.
Zhang Weili, though, was magnanimous in her victory and paid tribute to her defeated opponent on social media following the fight.
“I respect each of my opponents,” she wrote. “Other people’s failure will not make me happy. My confidence is built on my training and my team. @joannajedrzejczyk is a very powerful martial artist. In the end the octagon does not need garbage, we worked together and the battle was great.” The fight is rightly being hailed as one of the greatest bouts in the history of mixed martial arts, and made more impressive by Jedrzejczyk battling through a haematoma on the right side of her head sustained early in the fight. The Pole was taken to a nearby medical facility shortly after the fight for treatment and was therefore absent from the post-fight presser.
