Weili Zhang vs. Joanna Jędrzejczyk On Deck For UFC 248 In March

Weili Zhang will meet former Joanna Jędrzejczyk in her first title defense.

A strawweight title matchup between reigning champion, Weili Zhang and former division best, Joanna Jędrzejczyk is expected to feature at UFC 248 on March 7th. The two striking talents have traded verbal barbs in interviews over recent weeks, with Chinese native Zhang welcoming the challenge of the once dominant queen of the strawweights. Still without a venue as of yet, UFC 248 will mark the promotion's third pay-per-view of 2020. The news of the pairing was first reported by MMA Fighting writer, Damon Martin.

Hebei native Zhang, became the UFC's first champion hailing from Asia, as she stopped Brazil's incumbent champion, Jessica Andrade in less than a minute on home soil in August, achieving champion status just four fights deep into her stint with the organization. After an unsuccessful drop to flyweight to challenge Valentina Shevchenko in a vacant title clash, Joanna returned to 115-pounds at UFC Fight Night Tampa recently, where she rolled back the clock with a vintage Muay Thai exhibition against one-time Invicta FC champion, Michelle 'The Karate Hottie' Waterson.

Jędrzejczyk had dropped the strawweight throne to Rose Namajunas at UFC 217 almost three years ago, and following a second straight defeat to the Denver fan-favourite, picked up a unanimous decision triumph over Tecia 'Tiny Tornado' Torres. March's opponent Zhang on the other hand, has only tasted defeat once in her professional career, in her very first outing, and has remained firmly lodged in the win column ever since.

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