Zhang Weili of China attends the press conference after the UFC Fight Night event at Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre on August 31, 2019 in Shenzhen, China. (Photo by Zhe Ji/Getty Images)
The coach of women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili has explained why she has been unstoppable in the UFC.
Weili will be going into her second strawweight title defense, when she faces former champion Rose Namajunas in the co-main event of UFC 261, this week. Barring the only loss, which happened to be her first match in her MMA career match, Weili has 21 wins.
She made her UFC debut at UFC 227 in August 2018. And, in only her fourth UFC fight, she had the strawweight belt wrapped around her waist.
However, she was tested to the limits during her last fight at UFC 248. She took on former champ Joanna Jędrzejczyk in a gruesome battle, only to win via. split decision. She will be hoping that the Namajunas fight isn’t as tough as Joanna’s was, come the 24th of April.
In the recent UFC 261 Embedded Vlog Series on YouTube, Weili’s coach reveals why she has been a force to reckon with in the UFC. He goes on to say that Weili has always been someone who looks to keep improving each and everyday, even if it was a miniscule bit.
Weili’s coach can be seen saying:
“Weili always posts on her Instagram, saying something like: ‘I hope I can improve each and every day, even just by a bit.’ In my opinion, an athlete with that kind of mindset is unstoppable. Her purpose was not something like ‘I will defeat Rose.’ Instead, she wants to improve herself more and more, so I think she is unstoppable.”
Weili has been putting in the hard yards ahead of her title defense against Thug Rose.
She recently posted a video where she can be seen hurling some neo-powerful leg kicks alternating using both her legs.
It is certainly a massive fight for Weili. If she emerges victorious here, she might even go on to challenge Valentina Shevchenko (if she beats Jessica Andrade), by moving up a weight class.
It is to be noted that there is a bit of bad blood between Weili and Namajunas, going into the fight since Namajunas’ recent comments about Weili’s home country China was pretty disrespectful.
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