Jeff Smith 
@adminUFC 261 in Jacksonville was a highlight card of fights with three titles on the line. The women’s flyweight battle between Champion Valentina Shevchenko and Jessica Andrade. Champion Kamaru Usman taking on Jorge Masvidal for the men’s welterweight title. And Weili Zhang defending her strawweight belt against Rose Namajunas.
While Usman and Shevchenko left no doubt about their dominance in the sport successfully taking care of their business, Zhang suffered a stunning upset. Zhang came into the bout as a 2 to 1 favorite over Namajunas, but it was “Thug Rose” that came out on top.
Both fighters started out with a couple of quick jabs. Namajunas kept her feet moving constantly and found the opening she was looking for. She landed a perfectly placed head kick that put the champion on the canvas, followed up with a couple of hard strikes. The referee jumped in and stopped the fight seeing Weili was unable to defend herself from the blows.
The surprising conclusion happened at 1:18 of the opening round.
The loss is only the second of Zhang’s career and the first since her very first fight. She was on an unprecedented 21 fight win streak. It was also the first time she has been knocked out. Ironically it is Zhang that is known for striking power more than Namajunas.
Zhang felt the referee was a little hasty in stopping the fight. She was starting to get up when Namajunas threw three more strikes in and the ref stepped in.
“I feel I can come back real quick, I was still conscious, the referee stopped it a little bit early.” Zhang said after the fight, but it was clear she was unable to defend against the blows.
The win for Namajunas makes her the first woman to ever hold the strawweight title a second time. She lost the belt to Jessica Andrade in 2019 in which she received a brutal body slam that made her consider retiring from the sport.
Her decision to continue was obviously the correct choice as she is now the strawweight champion, again.
After the fight, Namajunas tried to smooth over the inflammatory comments she made leading up to the match. “All that stuff that was the in the media, that was not my intent to ever personally attack her as a person, It’s just my history and my past and that’s it.”
Whatever personal opinions one might have of her on her personal views, it is quite clear she brought fire and passion into the octagon that helped put her over the top.
If you played the hunch and bet on “Thug Rose” to win against the odds you did quite well for yourself, especially if you picked her in a prop bet too. This is the second time “Thug Rose” has come in as the underdog for a championship fight and come out victorious.
You can bet there will be another “round” for these two coming in the near future.
