Zhang Weili

The first Chinese UFC champion

Zhang Weili won the UFC women's strawweight title at UFC Fight Night 157 in August 2019 (TKO of Jessica Andrade in 42 seconds) — becoming the first Chinese fighter to win a UFC championship. She has held the title across two reigns (August 2019 to April 2021, and November 2022 to present) with five total title defenses and the rare title-recapture moment via the second Carla Esparza win.

Her record stands at 25-3 with notable wins over Tecia Torres, Jessica Andrade (twice), Joanna Jędrzejczyk (UFC 268 — the famous war), Carla Esparza, Yan Xiaonan, and Tatiana Suarez (UFC 312, 2025).

The Chinese Sanda foundation

Zhang trained in Chinese Sanda — the kickboxing-and-throwing martial art that's the foundation of professional Chinese combat sports — before transitioning to MMA in 2013. The Sanda system emphasizes lead-hand boxing, leg kicks, and the clinch-and-trip throws that produced her early career finishes.

The technical foundation has evolved during her UFC tenure under coach Henri Hooft and the Sanford MMA system in Florida:

• Boxing combinations: jab-cross-hook flows with championship-level volume.
• Leg kicks: low kicks that accumulate damage and limit opposition mobility.
• Clinch throws: Sanda-derived takedowns from clinch range.
• Defensive head movement: pull-counter and slip-and-counter work that's developed late-career.
• Wrestling defense: 80%+ takedown defense at championship level.

The Joanna Jędrzejczyk wars

The two Zhang-Joanna bouts are the most-celebrated women's MMA fights in history:

• UFC 248 (March 2020): Zhang won by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) in a five-round war that's widely regarded as the greatest women's MMA fight of all time. Over 350 combined significant strikes; both fighters were visibly hurt in multiple rounds.
• UFC 275 (November 2021, also referenced as UFC 268): Zhang won by KO via right-hand counter in round 2 — a decisive finish that confirmed Zhang's superiority and ended Joanna's competitive prime.

The first bout at UFC 248 in particular is on the short list of greatest MMA fights of any gender, and the bout's quality elevated both women's status in the all-time discussion.

The title-eligibility era and the Rose Namajunas losses

The two Rose Namajunas bouts (UFC 261 in April 2021 and UFC 268 in November 2021) framed the only setback in Zhang's career. Rose KO'd Zhang in 78 seconds of round 1 at UFC 261 via a head kick — one of the most decisive title-change moments in women's MMA. The rematch at UFC 268 was a split decision (48-47, 47-48, 47-48 Namajunas) that the MMA community broadly viewed as a Zhang win.

Zhang regained the title at UFC 281 in November 2022 (submission of Carla Esparza via rear-naked choke from back control in round 2).

The Tatiana Suarez defense

The 2025 UFC 312 title defense against Tatiana Suarez was Zhang's most technically dominant performance. Suarez had been the most-hyped strawweight contender for years before her injury issues, and the matchup was billed as the toughest test of Zhang's reign. Zhang won by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45) in a five-round bout that demonstrated her wrestling-defense-and-striking combo could neutralize a world-class wrestler.

The legacy

Zhang's case for the women's strawweight historical canon is the two-title-reign structure, the UFC 248 war with Joanna, and the cultural-impact of being the first Chinese UFC champion. The Rose losses don't materially diminish the peak — Zhang from 2020 to 2025 is the consensus women's strawweight #1, and the UFC 248 fight alone is one of the most consequential bouts in women's MMA history.

Her impact on Chinese combat sports has been generational. The post-Zhang era has produced a wave of Chinese contenders in the UFC women's divisions — Yan Xiaonan, Tom Aspinall-equivalent prospects — that wouldn't have reached the UFC without Zhang's box-office success.