{"id":343924,"date":"2020-03-10T06:26:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T13:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=343924"},"modified":"2022-02-04T17:11:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T01:11:31","slug":"weili-zhang-explains-how-coronavirus-related-complications-hindered-her-performance-at-ufc-248","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc-248\/weili-zhang-explains-how-coronavirus-related-complications-hindered-her-performance-at-ufc-248\/","title":{"rendered":"Weili Zhang explains how Coronavirus-related complications hindered her performance at UFC 248"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UFC strawweight champion Weili Zhang recently explained how the Coronavirus crisis negatively impacted her performance at UFC 248.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang made the first defense of her strawweight title in the co-main event of the UFC 248 card, taking on former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.<\/p>\n<p>In the weeks leading up to their eagerly anticipated matchup, the coronavirus spread across Zhang&#8217;s home country of China. Due to tightening travel restrictions, she was forced to move her camp to Thailand.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese champ&#8217;s team set up camp for a week and began training before news of the virus spreading threatened their new location. Once again, the strawweight champion had to pack up her belongings and travel to Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n<p>From there, she prepared for her upcoming bout before making the long journey to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang and Jedrzejczyk&#8217;s action-packed showdown proved to be one of the <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/dana-white-calls-weili-zhang-vs-joanna-jedrzejczyk-one-of-the-greatest-fights-in-mma-history\/\">best bouts in MMA history<\/a>. After a 25-minute battle, Zhang claimed the victory by split decision.<\/p>\n<p>Despite sealing the win and delivering a show-stopping performance, Zhang believes she would have performed better without the nonstop travelling and worry surrounding the Coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p id=\"YfluEL\">During an episode of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KW08Edjt9Qk\"> Ariel Helwani&#8217;s MMA show<\/a>, Zhang spoke through her translator:<\/p>\n<p id=\"9NhFm7\">\u201cI didn\u2019t put my best performance on because I haven&#8217;t really acclimatized at all here in Vegas,&#8221; Zhang. &#8220;I have been travelling to like three, four different places for this fight.<\/p>\n<p id=\"6FybC6\">\u201cI had a tough time acclimatizing to the time zone. I have only like three to five hours of sleeping. Normally I sleep like nine to ten hours in Beijing, but here in Vegas I couldn\u2019t get a nice sleep,&#8221; Zhang continued. \u201cSo I didn\u2019t give the best of me, I didn&#8217;t get the best performance. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t want to look at the fight yet. I only slept six hours total for the two days before the fight. Six hours total in two days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If UFC 248 was not her best work, it&#8217;s exciting to think what Weili Zhang is capable of when at full throttle.<\/p>\n<p>Now, she can hopefully take some much-needed rest and enjoy her well deserved $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i> on 3\/10\/2020. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UFC strawweight champion Weili Zhang recently explained how the Coronavirus crisis negatively impacted her performance at UFC 248. Zhang made the first defense of her strawweight title in the co-main event of the UFC 248 card, taking on former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. In the weeks leading up to their eagerly anticipated matchup, the coronavirus spread [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54472,"featured_media":343887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[64740],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Weili Zhang explains how Coronavirus-related complications hindered her performance at UFC 248 | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The UFC&#039;s strawweight champion, Weili Zhang explains how the Coronavirus panic and constant travel negatively impacted her UFC 248 performance.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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