Zhang pounds rival in virus-spat to retain UFC title

LAS VEGAS • Zhang Weili did not forget Joanna Jedrzejczyk's coronavirus taunt in the build-up to their Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) co-main event fight. After defending her strawweight title by split decision on Saturday night, she called for more "mutual respect" from fighters.

In her first title defence, China's first UFC champion scored 48-47 on two judges' cards to edge out her Polish opponent, who won 48-47 on the third.

Ahead of the UFC 248 bout in Las Vegas, former champion Jedrzejczyk had put up a photoshopped picture of herself on her Instagram page. The now-deleted post showed her wearing a face mask with a series of laughing emojis while standing beside Zhang, in reference to the coronavirus outbreak, which originated from Wuhan in December.

Although Jedrzejczyk, 32, later took down her post and apologised, saying, "I would never make fun of sick people with illness or virus", the Chinese vowed to make her pay in the cage.

After her win, which saw her improve to a record of 21 victories from 22 fights, 10 coming by way of knockout, Zhang told an interpreter: "I was pretty sure I got it. It was a great performance. We are all martial artists here. We don't want trash talking."

Dedicating her triumph to her countrymen, who have borne the brunt of the outbreak with more than 80,000 cases and almost 3,100 deaths, the 30-year-old said: "It's been very hard to come here since the coronavirus outbreak.

"My country and my people are fighting against the virus bravely. Since the virus is spreading worldwide, I just want to say that we can win this fight and together we will."

Jedrzejczyk, who was fighting for the belt she once held from March 2015 to November 2017, admitted she had no qualms with the loss that dropped her to 16 wins from 20 fights, with 4 KOs.

"She did a great job. I felt her punches," she said. "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 the other main event fight, Nigeria-born New Zealander Israel Adesanya defended his middleweight belt against Cuba's Yoel Romero by unanimous decision.

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