The Chinese champion has proven herself to be the best strawweight in the world right now with the division firmly in her grasp.
Zhang Weili’s recent performance against Tatiana Suarez showed that she is levels ahead of the other top contenders in the world right now but her path to the top wasn’t easy.
Long before Weili could look at champ vs champ fights, she had to test herself against the most dominant 155-pounder in UFC history.
Poland’s Joanna Jedrzejczyk wasn’t just a trailblazer as the woman who put the division on the map, she was a fierce champion during her reign.
There’s a reason that Jedrzejczyk previously showed interest in a female BMF title fight and it’s because of unforgettable nights like UFC 248.
Zhang Weili narrowly emerged victorious in an instant classic title fight with Joanna Jedrzejczyk
After Zhang Weili ran right through Jessica Andrade to become the strawweight champion, her first title defense would come against the former dominant champion.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk was undefeated during her title reign but after three losses in title fights against Rose Namajunas and Valentina Shevchenko, it was time for her to show that she could still hang with the new wave of strawweights.
In the co-main event of UFC 248, which took place five years ago to this day (March 7), the newly crowned champion faced a woman who had become synonymous with the gold and the fight completely blew expectations out of the water.
The narrative heading into the fight was output against power but the defending champion proved that she could match the speed and pace of her challenger as two of the best in the world left it all out there.
They both had a lot of success on the feet, combining for 351 landed significant strikes, but there is one aspect of this fight that many fight fans remember it by.
The champion consistently landed big power shots to the head which created a hematoma on Jedrzejczyk’s forehead that really became a factor in the championship rounds where it continued to swell to leave the challenger looking unrecognisable by the end of the fight.
A lot of the rounds went right down to the wire, with both women regularly landing huge shots in the exchanges, which was reflected in the scorecards that had the champion retaining the title via a split decision.
As Jedrzejczyk correctly predicted ahead of time, many believe it to be the greatest female title fight in MMA history.
Zhang Weili won the rematch in devastating fashion
Whilst Joanna Jedrzejczyk took over two years out, Zhang Weili would lose her title following back-to-back losses to Rose Namajunas.
That set both women up for a rematch at UFC 275 in Singapore where the Chinese star left no room for debate this time around by delivering a spinning backfist knockout in the second round.
In her post-fight interview after the loss, Jedrzejczyk announced her retirement with the former strawweight queen being inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last year.
As for Weili, she turned her bounce back win over Jedrzejczyk into a five-fight win streak where she has been totally dominant at 115-pounds with no signs of slowing down.