It would be sad to see Zhang with the Strawweight title

Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman has explained why it would be “sad” to see Zhang Weili return to the strawweight throne later this year.

At UFC 274 last May, Usman saw teammate and friend Rose Namajunas take the loss to Carla Esparza for the second time in her career. While the former meant she failed to win the inaugural 115-pound title, the latter led to her losing her grip on the belt, which she had held for just over a year.

With “Thug Rose” out of the equation for now, the door was opened for Zhang to mount another challenge after claiming a shot by knocking out Joanna Jędrzejczyk at UFC 275 in Singapore.

“Magnum” will now meet two-time champion Esparza at UFC 281, which takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 12.

Zhang originally won the title in 2019 by ending the short reign of Jéssica Andrade. But after defending him in a Fight-of-the-Year-worthy war with Jędrzejczyk, the Chinese star had his rule and 21-fight winning streak snapped by Namajunas via knockout last April.

After seeing ‘Thug Rose’ get the better of Zhang at UFC 261 and in a rematch seven months later, fellow fighter Usman, a fighter associated with Onx Sports, admitted it wouldn’t be a good feeling to see the woman who was defeated twice by Namajunas back at the top.

Usman Notes Namajunas/Zhang Series

During an appearance on JRE MMA Show episode #128Usman and host Joe Rogan discussed Namajunas’ much-talked-about setback this year, as well as his future and the current state of the strawweight division.

After expressing his desire to see Namajunas pull one off in his series with defending champion Esparza, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ turned his attention to the upcoming title fight at 115lbs, making his feelings known about a potential second reign. from Zhang.

“To this day, I still think Rose, some of the things she can do are amazing,” Usman said. “(The last fight was) not her best, obviously…I think she’s in a place where she’s made peace with that…I’d love to see her get that one back.

“But they already announced that Carla was fighting Zhang Weili, which is – I mean, that would be sad to watch. Let’s say Zhang Weili is going to take the title from Carla, it would be sad to see her walking around with the title as Rose beat her twice,” Usman added.

While Namajunas left no doubt in his first clash with ‘Magnum’, putting him to sleep with a vicious left headbutt in the first round, their rematch held by MSG lasted the full five rounds and divided the community. mma.

By MMA Decisions, 52.5% of the 1,048 fans who provided their scorecards attributed the fight to the challenger, with 49.8% scoring it 48-47 in the Chinese fighter’s favorite. But of the 22 members of the media who submitted their takes, 14 had it for then-champion Namajunas.