Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk went to war inside the Octagon, but the strawweight competitors share a mutual respect outside the cage.
Zhang and Jedrzejczyk recently reunited and captured the moment in a video on social media.
“We are each other’s opponent in the Octagon, we all want to chase our dreams to win the fight, but outside of the Octagon we are friends,” Zhang said. “We can have dinner together, we can talk to each other, we can be really good friends. So I am really happy about it. ‘JJ’ is always a legend in my heart, she is always the champion. I want to learn from her.”
Zhang initially defended her strawweight crown against Jedrzejczyk via split decision at UFC 248 in a fight that will go down as one of the greatest in promotion history. The rematch occurred more than two years later, when Zhang defeated her Polish rival via spinning backfist KO at UFC 275.
Jedrzejczyk eventually retired after the second loss to Zhang, but the former 115-pound queen appears to have forged a friendship with her former adversary.
“Remember, I think like we are athletes, but we’re humans,” Jedrzejczyk said. “Today we’re the champ, tomorrow we are not, but we’re always going to be humans so this is what’s more important. What we can give for free is love and smile to each other, that’s the most important thing. One day we can beat the hell out of each other and the next day we can have dinner.”
Zhang is slated to defend the strawweight title against Xioanan Yan at UFC 300 on April 13.
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