In what MMA fans called as the greatest fight of all-time, Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk tussled in a fight for the ages at the UFC248 co-main event on Saturday night.
The strawweight pair delivered rousing performances in Las Vegas as they went back and forth in a five-round war that will go down as one of the best fights ever in MMA history.
When the smoke cleared, Zhang found herself retaining the 115-pound title as two judges scored 48-47 in her favour to secure a split decision victory.
Both warriors needed to be rushed to the hospital as they sustained major damages from the fight and were discharged the following day with no significant injuries as per a report from ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
“I was pretty sure I got it,” Zhang said after the win (per ESPN).
“It was a great performance. We are all martial artists here. We don’t want trash-talking. We want mutual respect.”
On the other hand without a doubt the fight of the night goes to Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Weili Zhang.
These ladies came out like true competitors and put it all out on the line. Both champions and warriors in my eyes.
This was the true main event! #UFC248 pic.twitter.com/hSuDmKt3D4
— Cristian Alvarez (@AlvarezTheViper) March 8, 2020
Gruesome Injury
As for Jedrzejczyk, she humbly accepted the judges’ decision and has congratulated her opponent for getting the job done at UFC 248.
The former strawwweight champ also shared she felt Zhang’s power when the Chinese landed a powerful hit to the forehead late in the second round, which resulted to a huge hematoma.
“She did a great job. I felt her punches,” Jedrzejczyk admitted.
“The swelling was bothering me. I felt it more and more, but we’re good. Congrats, champ. I’m very happy we gave a good fight.”
In case you missed it, here is the footage of Weili Zhang drilling a vicious right hand that caused Jedrzejczyk’s brutal forehead injury.
OMG The punch from Weili Zhang that caused a swollen lump on the forehead of JJ what a fight folk’s🔥🔥🔥#UFC248 pic.twitter.com/27MNw0nFpl
— Hasnain Shah (@Hasnainshah77) March 8, 2020
Incredible Fight
UFC president Dana White has praised the co-main event stars for an incredible fight that had 400 punches thrown by each fighter.
“It’s one of the best fights I’ve ever seen, period,” he told the media in the post-fight press conference.
“Right when the fight got over, I heard that they threw 800 punches, 400 each, in that ballpark. Both women were incredibly durable, kept coming forward, both of them wanted to win that belt so bad.”
“It was one of the greatest fights ever.”
“From what I saw, those guys were matching each other punch for punch. Every time someone would punch or kick, the other one would punch or kick. “
“Both of them threw around 400 punches. It was an incredible fight.”
Joanna end of round 1 vs Joanna end of round 5 #UFC248 #joannajedrzejczyk #zhangweili pic.twitter.com/SiLTIUzYeT
— The Koncrete Jungle (@TheKJungle) March 8, 2020
(Featured Image Source: Twitter/ Cristian Alvarez and UFC)