{"id":324009,"date":"2019-09-01T18:07:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T01:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=324009"},"modified":"2019-09-01T18:07:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T01:07:53","slug":"weili-zhang-receives-praise-from-dwayne-johnson-tom-brady-other-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/weili-zhang-receives-praise-from-dwayne-johnson-tom-brady-other-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Weili Zhang receives praise from Dwayne Johnson, Tom Brady, other stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

In just 42 seconds, Weili Zhang captured the UFC strawweight title, became the first Chinese champion in UFC history, and became one of the brightest young stars in MMA.<\/p>\n

In fact, her abrupt TKO victory over the former champion Jessica Andrade was so impressive that it earned praise from a number of huge celebrities from outside the MMA bubble \u2014 and from many inside it.<\/a><\/p>\n

See some of the best celebrity reactions \u2014 including comments from Dwayne Johnson and Tom Brady \u2014 below (via @UFC on Instagram<\/a>):<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B14Ii5qHfu0\/<\/p>\n

“Congrats champ,” Johnson wrote in the replies on a UFC instagram post.<\/p>\n

“Congrats Weili Zhang,” Brady wrote in his Instagram story.<\/p>\n

In addition to this praise from stars like Dwayne Johnson and Tom Brady, Weili Zhang also earned some very positive feedback<\/a> from UFC President Dana White.<\/p>\n

\u201cWeili told me tonight that she wants to fight as much as possible, which I love,” White said of Zhang (via\u00a0MMAFighting<\/a>). “And I can tell you this going into this fight with Jessica Andrade, nobody wanted to fight Weili Zhang. Nobody wanted to fight her. Now she\u2019s the champion, so if you want a shot at that belt, you have to fight her.\u201d<\/p>\n

White also commented on what could be next for the new strawweight champ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019re all taking time off right now. Rose (Namajunas) is definitely taking time off,\u201d he said, pumping the brakes on a possible Namajunas vs. Zhang matchup.\u00a0\u201cRose got slammed on her head and wanted to take some time off after that, which is understandable. The other girls are all fighting, there\u2019s other fights happening right now and as they play out it will determine what\u2019s next for Weili.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

With her victory over Jessica Andrade, Weili Zhang improved to a fantastic 20-1 overall. Her last five wins have occurred under the UFC banner.<\/p>\n

What do you think is next for this rapidly rising UFC star?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 9\/1\/2019. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In just 42 seconds, Weili Zhang captured the UFC strawweight title, became the first Chinese champion in UFC history, and became one of the brightest young stars in MMA. In fact, her abrupt TKO victory over the former champion Jessica Andrade was so impressive that it earned praise from a number of huge celebrities from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54459,"featured_media":315263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[39610,39687],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWeili Zhang receives praise from Dwayne Johnson, Tom Brady, other stars | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New UFC strawweight champ Weili Zhang earned praise from a number of high profile celebrities including Tom Brady and Dwayne Johnson.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/weili-zhang-receives-praise-from-dwayne-johnson-tom-brady-other-stars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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