Zhang Weili is done with what she calls “political nonsense.”
For the former UFC strawweight champion, it’s all about taking back the belt she lost on April 24,
On Saturday at Madison Square Garden, in the pay-per-view co-headliner against Rose Namajunas, Zhang is certainly hoping the championship bout goes longer than the 78 seconds the first meeting between the two did.
“If the fight goes longer, it will be definitely a better assessment,” Zhang recently told The Post through an interpreter.
More importantly, though, the UFC’s first champion from China would like to leave politics out of the fight promotion this time around. In the leadup to their first meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., comments made by Namajunas (10-4, seven finishes) brought an anti-communist narrative to their fight.
Namajunas, 29, left Lithuania for Milwaukee with her family as the Cold War ended. She told LRT Lituanica in early April that “Weili is red, that’s what she represents” and parroted the “better red than dead” slogan,. Namajunas added that there was “nothing personal” against Zhang (21-2, 17 finishes), who has no known history of making her politics public.
Namajunas’ comments quickly took over the pre-fight narrative. Zhang responded with little more than an invitation to visit her homeland — and Namajunas suggested Zhang would need to visit Lithuania first.
Ultimately, it was a devastating head kick that dethroned Zhang, ending a reign that began in August 2019 and was comprised of one successful title defense: an all-time classic split decision victory over Joanna Jedrzejczyk just days before the COVID-19 pandemic changed American life last March. Minutes before her first professional loss since her pro MMA debut in 2013, Zhang had been showered with an unexpected level of boos from the Florida crowd, which she owes to the current champ bringing politics into the mix.
“It’s more about what Rose said before the fight about the political comments, and that may have incited the audience to boo me,” Zhang said. “I wasn’t very prepared for that.”
For the rematch, the venue shifts to New York and a metropolitan area that, according to Pew Research Center as of 2015, is home to the largest Chinese population in the country. As such Zhang is optimistic she will receive greater support from Chinese Americans at the Garden.
“Maybe there’s a lot of Chinese fans who will go to the city to see me fight,” Zhang said. “I hope there will be some Chinese fans cheering for me in Chinese.”
Zhang, 32, brings a new look to this fight, both physically and in her fight preparation. She cropped her long locks in favor of a short ‘do — a move she attributes to exasperation with having her hair yanked out while training her grappling. More impactfuly, she set her training camp in the United States for the first time.
Traditionally based out of Black Tiger Fight Club in Beijing, Zhang trekked to Scottsdale, Ariz., to train with Fight Ready MMA. Rather than arriving in the US two weeks ahead of her fight, she arrived stateside on Sept. 12 to train under Eric Albarracin, Eddie Cha and former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo. She feels confident with the way the new experience has gone and appreciates the more “detail-oriented” approach to training than she was accustomed to in China.
“The training in Arizona has really focused on mixing the different tactics that I have learned in the past and also added on new things.” Zhang said.
Zhang’s evolution has drawn raves from Cejudo, who retired last spring after a successful bantamweight title defense against former longtime champ Dominick Cruz. The boisterous Cejudo hyped her on Instagram in late September as “Weili 2.0.”
But the former 115-pound champ took it a step further in her self-evaluation ahead of the rematch with Namajunas.
“I’m a brand new fighter, and also, it’s a brand new fight,” Zhang said. “I’m a challenger to the belt [this time], so I just willed myself as a challenger to the belt. And Henry said I’m ‘2.0’, but I feel I’m already 3.0.”