A year after her award-winning fight against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Zhang Weili has found her next challenger for the strawweight title: Rose Namajunas.
The UFC announced that the two fighters will face off at UFC 261, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 24.
Namajunas herself is a former UFC strawweight champion, claiming the title from Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217 back in November 2017. She defended it once against Jedrzejczyk before losing it to Jessica Andrade at UFC 237 in May 2019. Namajunas put herself back in the winning column in her rematch with Andrade (who had since lost the title to Zhang) with a split-decision victory at UFC 251 last July, but Zhang may just be her greatest challenge yet.
Zhang, for her part, has only one loss in her professional career from back in 2013. Since then, she’s been on a winning streak that has spanned 21 fights, which included a 42-second TKO that took the strawweight title away from Andrade in August 2019. Her most recent fight was an unforgettable title defense against Jedrzejczyk that led to a split decision in her favor last year, and another title defense against a former division champion is a logical next step for her career.
Zhang vs. Namajunas will take place at UFC 261 on Saturday, April 24.
