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“I think you have to [do the rematch]. I think that’s all there is.”
Although it was reigning strawweight champ Weili Zhang who emerged victorious over Joanna Jedrzejczyk in the UFC 248 co-main event this past Saturday, both women walked away winners after putting on one of the greatest title fights in UFC history.
Zhang and Jedrzejczyk fought tooth-and-nail for five gruelling rounds at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile arena and, although it was an incredibly tough fight to score, American Top Team (ATT) coach and former WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown believes the judges could have scored the bout in Joanna’s favor.
“It was just so tough to score the rounds,” Brown said in a recent interview with MMA Fighting. “I was just focused on that. When I’m coaching a fight, I put each round into three categories: ours, theirs, or undecided…anybody’s round. I like to do that any time it’s close. Then you have to think about a bad judge calling this for which side. You’ve got to be loose when you’re scoring fights as a coach, because that’s going to decide how your athlete attacks the rest of the fight.”
“I always err on the side of caution. Like the first two [rounds], I didn’t know. They were undecided. The only one that was easy to score, I thought, was the third round. The other ones I wasn’t sure.”
After Zhang and Joanna’s five-round epic at UFC 248, Brown thinks it only makes for the UFC to book an immediate rematch between the two strawweights.
“I think you have to [do the rematch],” Brown said. “I think that’s all there is. I think the only thing Joanna’s in this sport for is to be champion, and if it’s not for that, it’s not worth it. For her, she’s so disciplined, the weight cut is very difficult, [and] she puts herself through hell. Most athletes wouldn’t get through the weight cut. She really is as mentally tough as anyone I’ve ever seen. It’s really impressive.
“So of course if that was an option, that would be a good one. They both need some time to heal up and rest their bodies, but I don’t think anything else would make any sense.”
As of Tuesday, Joanna is ranked #4 in the UFC women’s strawweight rankings and considered one of the greatest female champions and competitors in UFC history.