Under four years subsequent to winning the UFC’s strawweight championship in a stunning knockout of Joanna Jedrzejczyk in New York, Namajunas (10-4) took out Zhang Weili with a left head kick only 1:18 into the opening round on Saturday. The 115-pound title battle co-featured UFC 261 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
“I did it again,” said Namajunas, through tears. “I am the best.”
Namajunas, 28, has basically experienced childhood in UFC title battles. She battled in the UFC’s debut strawweight title battle in 2014 at 22 years old and lost to Carla Esparza. She won the belt against Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217 out of 2017 at that point gave up it to Jessica Andrade in 2019. During that time, she additionally has transparently discussed the pressing factor of public life and retirement.
In beating Zhang, Namajunas has now taken out two of the most prevailing strawweights throughout the entire existence of the game. Jedrzejczyk (16-4) holds the division’s record for most title protections with five. Zhang (21-2) sees a 21-battle win streak snapped, returning to 2014.
Namajunas, who battles out of Denver, dropped Zhang in the focal point of the Octagon with a head kick at that point jumped on her with right hammerfists. Zhang seemed to go oblivious from the shots, and afterward quickly questioned the stoppage with ref Keith Peterson.
Even subsequent to seeing the replay, Zhang, in any event at first, said through an interpreter she accepted she was as yet cognizant at the hour of the stoppage.
“I didn’t see her moving,” Namajunas said. “I wasn’t sure if she was gonna come back from that. A couple hammerfists I let go, and she was out.”
It’s an extremely speedy, staggering path for the Chinese strawweight to lose her title, which nearly reflects the way she originally caught it. Zhang, 31, took the belt in 2019 by taking out Andrade in only 42 seconds in Shenzhen, China.
It is the eighth knockout by head kick in UFC title battle history.