There is no question about the pound-for-pound best female fighter in the world.
It’s reigning UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion Zhang Weili and she made a statement on Saturday night in the UFC 292 co-main event at TD Garden in Boston. Weili pounded on Amanda Lemos for five rounds en route to a one-sided unanimous-decision win and successful defense of her title.
Weili didn’t just win, she set a record for most strikes landed in a fight with 296 in one of the more dominant title defenses we’ve seen in years.
Weili landed several big shots, but this massive right hand that dropped Lemos in the fifth round was the perfect punctuation to a huge night.
Lemos had designs on landing one of the heavy strikes that positioned her for the title opportunity and earned her the reputation as one of the scariest fighters in the division.
Unfortunately for Lemos, she couldn’t stop Weili from taking her down, and as you can see from the highlight above, the champion had her moments on the feet as well.
Weili landed six takedowns and logged a mountain of control time throughout the fight. Despite Weili’s bell-to-bell domination, one judge found a way to give Lemos one round as the champion prevailed 50-44, 50-43 and 49-45.
There were a handful of questionable scorecards throughout the night. Thankfully, the issues didn’t result in a noteworthy robbery, but Weili’s performance was worthy of a complete sweep across all three scorecards.
In any case, the champion improved her record to 24-3 overall and she could be moving toward an upcoming title defense against Tatiana Suarez or Yan Xiaonan.
Lemos has to heal and get back on the trail to hopefully earn another shot in the future. Because of how one-sided the defeat was, Lemos will likely need to put together an impressive set of wins to get another crack at Weili.
Here is a look at all of the results from UFC 292:
Main Card
- Sean O’Malley def. (c) Aljamain Sterling via 2nd-round TKO (0:51) – – NEW CHAMPION
- (c) Zhang Weili def. Amanda Lemos via UD (50-43, 50-44, 49-45)
- Ian Machado Garry def. Neil Magny via UD (30-x26 x2, 30-24)
- Mario Bautista def. Da’Mon Blackshear via unanimous decision (29-28 x2, 30-27)
- Marlon Vera def. Pedro Munhoz via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)
Prelims
- Brad Tavares def. Chris Weidman via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
- Gregory Rodrigues def. Denis Tiuliulin via first-round KO (1:43)
- Kurt Holobaugh def. Austin Hubbard via sub (triangle choke) (R2, 2:39)
- Brad Katona def. Cody Gibson via unanimous decision (29-28 x2, 30-27)
- Andre Petroski def. Gerald Meerschaert via split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)
- Natalia Silva def. Andrea Lee via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
- Karine Silva def. Maryna Moroz via sub (guillotine) (R1, 4:59)
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