Before-and-after pics tell the story of the damage Joanna Jedrzejczyk took from UFC women’s strawweight Weili Zhang during their instant classic at UFC 248.
Jedrzejczyk and Zhang threw everything including the kitchen sink at each other for 25 minutes as they put on one of the best fights in MMA history against each other, with Zhang eventually emerging as the winner by split decision to retain the belt. It was an extremely close fight, but the difference to the judges was likely the visual damage inflicted on Jedrzejczyk, including a massive hematoma on her forehead.
When you talk about the most memorable hematomas in MMA history, the one that comes to mind first belongs to Mark Hominick when he fought Jose Aldo at UFC 129. Jedrzejczyk, though, gave Hominick a run for his money on Saturday. Below, take a look at the before-and-after photos of Jedrzejczyk after her 25-minute war with Zhang, which clearly shows the massive hematoma on her forehead (via ESPN).
BEFORE ➡️ AFTER #UFC248 pic.twitter.com/AGMBh29f8M
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 8, 2020
Earlier in the week, UFC president Dana White criticized Jedrzejczyk for spending more time at the beach and less time in the gym than Zhang. Clearly, Jedrzejczyk was spending just as much time in the gym, and after the war that she and Zhang had on Saturday, Jedrzejczyk should be given an apology for all the comments from White and others poking fun at Jedrzejczyk for her Instagram pics by the beach.
It’s clear based on her performance that Jedrzejczyk trained and fought as hard as she could against Zhang, and the result was one of the most exciting five-round battles we have ever seen in mixed martial arts history. Jedrzejczyk may have lost the fight by a close split decision, but she gained the respect of every MMA fan and fellow fighter for the toughness she showed inside the Octagon.
Who do you think won, Joanna Jedrzejczyk or Weili Zhang?