Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President, Dana White, took a little swipe at former strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, while speaking to the media this week in advance of their UFC 248 co-main event, taking place this Sat. night (March 7, 2020) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Maybe he wants to take away some of those classic Jedrzejczyk excuses in the event that she loses, or maybe he just doesn’t understand why the former champ is not treating her “Magnum” fight like the most important showdown of her career.
“These two, right now, if you look at Joanna, she’s out at the beach and living the lifestyle,” White told reporters during a pre-fight scrum (transcribed by Adam Martin). “Then you watch Weili Zhang’s posts on Instagram — hardcore training, non-stop training, all she thinks about is fighting — it’s fascinating. I love this fight.”
Zhang improved to 20-1 by smashing Jessica Andrade for the 115-pound strap last August. “Magnum” expressed interest in making her first title defense against former champion, Rose Namajunas, but this contract stipulation put an end to those talks.
“Have you watched some of her videos training? They had a video of (Zhang) punching the other day,” White continued. “And I’m telling you right now, she throws punches better than 99 percent of the men that I’ve ever known in my entire career.”
Jedrzejczyk (16-3) got back into the strawweight title hunt by turning away Michelle Waterson at UFC Fight Night 161 back in October. Despite her win over “Karate Hottie,” Jedrzejczyk is still ranked No. 4 in the division, behind the undefeated Tatiana Suarez (No. 3).
Zhang, not surprisingly, remains the betting favorite.