Fight Study 57: Zhang vs. The Meme (transcript) (Patreon)

UFC 248 featured two title fights with both champions making their first defenses. Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya faced off against Yoel Romero in the main event while Zhang Weili fought Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the strawweight belt. Both fights went to the judges’ scorecards, but the fights themselves were wildly different. Adesanya defeated Romero by unanimous decision with one judge giving Adesanya 4 rounds to 1. Meanwhile, Zhang defeated Jedrzejczyk by split decision, and although the final scores were all 48-47, the scorecards were all over the place. The only round the judges had in common was round 3, which they gave to Jedrzejczyk as 10-9. Recently, split decisions has become a hot topic, and this fight adds to that discussion. First, let’s talk briefly about the main event.

A lot of fans, media, and other fighters were underwhelmed by the main event, and after a war like Zhang vs Jedrzejczyk, it’s hard to blame them. The fight game is never easy to predict, and sometimes these matchups don’t live up to their hype. Let’s also not forget that Adesanya could have avoided this fight altogether but didn’t want to remain inactive while Paulo Costa recovered from surgery. He called out Romero specifically to address the criticism that he hasn’t faced a strong wrestler, and for that he should be applauded.

There’s tons of fighters (and champions, for that matter) who have gone their entire careers or championship runs without facing someone that is stylistically a nightmare for them. When we have a champion that welcomes these kinds of challenges, we should be aware that they do this at their own peril. It could mean that they suffer a loss or end up with a snoozer like this. Boring title fights aren’t new, in fact the UFC has had several of them in recent times and in the past.

Whether it’s Tito Ortiz vs Vladimir Matyushenko, Tim Sylvia vs Andrei Arlovski 3, or Anderson Silva vs Demian Maia, the UFC has had boring title fights before, and they’ll probably have more in the future. As fans, we need to have perspective and realize that these duds are possible from time to time, and unless we get them consistently, we should be grateful for the amazing matches we DO get, like the co-main for this card.

If there’s a saving grace for UFC 248, it was definitely the co-main event. Zhang beat Jedrzejczyk by split decision, with two judges scoring the fight in her favor, 48-47, and one lone judge giving it to Jedrzejczyk. With all the action this fight had, it’s important to note that this fight almost didn’t happen.

Zhang trains out of Beijing, China, and getting her visa to fight stateside has been an issue more than once. In late 2019, Zhang’s visa was declined twice, keeping her from coming to the US to promote a future title fight. In a strange twist that saw MMA and politics colliding again, Tulsi Gabbard intervened and offered to help sort out things with the state department. This also explains why she was in the cage following Zhang’s victory.

But even as close as late February, there were concerns that the travel restrictions from China and the US would prevent Zhang from entering the country. Fortunately, Zhang and her team moved their training over to Thailand before being moved to Ahu Dhabi by the UFC. From there, Zhang continued training until her visa to travel to the US was secured. That’s quite a journey, and it’s something that shouldn’t be glossed over.

Imagine being a fighter and starting your training camp, only to be told that through no fault of your own, you have to pack up everything and move to another country, outside your comfort zone. You’re already aware that the fight itself will be on foreign soil, but training camp as well? Fine, you decide to go with flow and go somewhere else. Once you’re there, you get told AGAIN to pack up your clothes and gear, you’re being moved once more to a different country so that you can HOPEFULLY get your visa secured and compete on schedule. Traveling with a pre-determined schedule is stressful enough, but having to make last minute changes with no guarantee of being able to reach your intended destination? What a nightmare.

This problem was only compounded by the thinly veiled racism that Zhang faced due to the coronavirus. Jedrzejczyk reposted a photshop of herself in a hazmat suit, poking fun at the situation going on in Zhang’s home country. Even if that can be played off as harmless prank, the fact that there were fans chanting “CORONAVIRUS” during Zhang’s open workout was completely disrespectful and straight up racist. Zhang responded by flipping them the bird, and those chanting were escorted out. Things seemed to be settled until Jedrzejczyk confronted Zhang during the face off, claiming that she “disrespected” the Polish fans. I don’t know if Jedrzejczyk was aware WHY Zhang flipped them off, but if Jedrzejczyk is claiming to have the back of clearly racially insensitive fans, it’s not a good look for her, at all. Zhang doesn’t speak English well, and she lets her actions speak for her. Luckily, both fighters delivered in an all out classic.

It’s hard to describe the action round by round, and frankly that would be a disservice to the fight itself. Instead, let’s talk about certain habits and strategies that both fighters used as the fight started as well as how they adjusted.

Early on, both fighters exchanged lead low kicks to gauge their distance, and from there each of them had success implementing parts of their game plan.

If you’ve read the fight preview for this matchup, there’s a good chance a lot of the techniques and habits seemed familiar to you. Zhang loves hammering in the lead inside low kick, and even though she was going up against the more decorated kickboxer in Jedrzejczyk, she didn’t care. Alexander Volkanovski is another champion that loves throwing the inside lead low kick, and for much of the same reason. Jedrzejczyk is the taller fighter with longer reach, but by using the inside lead low kick, Zhang is able to cover distance quickly and get herself in the best position to start throwing lead hooks and straights. Zhang did this multiple times and in addition to being able to get closer to Jedrzejczyk, she forced stance switches from the challenger as well as hurt her at times when Jedrzejczyk had more of her weight in front foot.

Another thing that Zhang seemed to have picked up from Jedrzejczyk’s past fight with Valentina Shevchenko is that the best time to strike her is during her attacks. Too many fighters in the past have given Jedrzejczyk respect and opted to wait until after she’s done striking to assert their own offense. This is something that you see a lot of in traditional martial arts, and it’s why guys like Paul Felder seems surprised when they get hit with counters quicker than they expected. It’s the old, “I hit you, you hit me, let’s see who can take more” mindset. Even during training, good coaches know that a fighter should have defensive responses mid-combination, since there’s a very good chance that the opponent won’t simply take the punishment and wait for their turn. In this fight, Zhang struck back while Jedrzejczyk was in the midst of jabbing or throwing an axe kick, and it forced Jedrzejczyk to respond quicker than expected.

Jedrzejczyk looked great picking Zhang apart at range, but it also helps that Zhang moved forward more often than expected. Whenever you approach a counter striker in a straight line, you’re giving them exactly what they want. Zhang did a good job moving laterally and pressuring Jedrzejczyk with feints, but her attacks seemed to come head on without as much thought. This is also how Jedrzejczyk was able to land strikes that seemed to be more powerful than they actually are since Zhang supplied the early momentum.

When the fight did get to close range, it was the accurate combination work of Jedrzejczyk against the more powerful strikes of Zhang. You can see that as the fight went on, Zhang felt that she was the stronger fighter and was willing to eat a few strikes in order to get close enough to land her right straight and hooks.

One thing that seemed to surprise Jedrzejczyk was the speed of Zhang. One look at Zhang’s fights makes it clear that she’s very strong for the division, but what’s not counted as often is her speed. Jedrzejczyk is one of the better fighters when it comes to ring craft, being able to measure distance and keeping her feet within the two black lines. When Zhang landed her punches, Jedrzejczyk seemed certain that she was within a safe enough distance to not get caught. Namajunas and Shevchenko often hid their ability to cover distance quickly by either feinting or throwing punches immediately after kicking.

At the end of the second round, a pattern was starting to emerge. Jedrzejczyk was looking to start her offense with kicks and counter with punches while moving laterally. Zhang would use her inside lead low kicks to cover distance and set up her right straight, with the occasional side kick and spinning kick if her initial low kick missed. In round 3, Jedrzejczyk spent large portions of her time in southpaw, hoping to land the left high kick and give herself more space in the open stance. Zhang had some trouble adjusting, and Jedrzejczyk took full advantage of this by landing multiple high kicks and hammering her left straight. It’s also very possible the constant lead low kick of Zhang was taking its toll.

What kept Zhang competitive in this round was the clinch and takedowns. Even though she wasn’t kept down for long, it did just enough to keep Jedrzejczyk from teeing off. Zhang was a bit more economical when it came to moving around the octagon, but she didn’t throw with any less power. This was also the round in which Zhang was able to get Jedrzejczyk’s head swelling up with a perfectly timed right hand. It definitely looks worse than it actually is, but it doesn’t help that there’s ten more minutes for Zhang to target that forehead and make it balloon up even more.

To the surprise of no one, that’s exactly what Zhang did, starting the championship rounds by looking specifically at Jedrzejczyk’s forehead. The southpaw stance of Jedrzejczyk was still giving Zhang problems, but it seemed as if she was able to time Jedrzejczyk’s attacks and counter whenever they got in close range. When Jedrzejczyk opted to stand still for just a moment, Zhang took advantage by coming in with left hooks and right straights. Even though it was clear that Zhang was the more fatigued of the two, she made the most of it by taking less steps and focusing on her counters instead of pressuring Jedrzejczyk.

The final round came down to the volume and accuracy of Jedrzejczyk against the speed and power of Zhang. One of Zhang’s left hooks hit Jedrzejczyk right on the nose, doing some more cosmetic damage and reminding fans of her power. It was interesting to see Jedrzejczyk come forward and having Zhang play the counter striker, essentially switching their roles from the first few rounds. Knowing that the fight was close, Zhang spent the last few minutes pressuring Jedrzejczyk and forcing her to throw, often with misses. This was the same game plan that Namajunas used, and it’s good to see that even in the last few minutes of a fight, the strategy is sound.

The fight itself was incredibly fun to watch, and just as difficult to score. If you go strictly by the numbers, Jedrzejczyk landed more significant strikes, total strikes, and had the higher accuracy rate. Round by round, it becomes a lot more difficult to pick a winner. Although Jedrzejczyk landed more, it was clear that the power of Zhang was taking its toll. If you go by the visuals, it was Jedrzejczyk who definitely looked worse for the wear, literally having her face rearranged and a swelling that just would not go down. The only bright spots in all these split decisions are the great fights that we’ve been spoiled with.

As for what’s next for the fighters, it’s going to be interesting to see who they pick next for both. Jedrzejczyk has fallen to 0-4 in her past four title matches, but she’s essentially undefeated outside of championship fights. The UFC can try and pit her against someone else in the top ten, a fight against Tatiana Suarez could be intriguing. Suarez is so far undefeated in the division, but has yet to face someone the level of Jedrzejczyk. It would be a good litmus test to see if she’s ready to challenge for the title. Given that Jedrzejczyk should get some time off, perhaps they’ll both be ready for each other when a return date is scheduled.

For Zhang, it seems that the winner of the Jessica Andrade and Rose Namajunas fight could be a perfect setup. Ideally, Suarez should have been challenging her for the belt, but given her on-going neck issues, we’re still not sure when she’s slated for a return. It seems unfair to Suarez to throw her into a five round fight right after an extended layoff, and if Namajunas is able to beat Andrade, who better for a second title defense than another former champ? Time will tell how the future will unfold for Zhang, but let’s give the champion some well deserved time off.