Weili Zhang sets striking record as she dominates Amanda Lemos over five rounds to retain strawweight title at UFC 292
Weili Zhang made history during her latest fight.
The Chinese MMA star outpointed Amanda Lemos over five rounds at UFC 292 to retain her strawweight title courtesy of 50-43, 50-44, and 49-45 scorecards.
Zhang looked like a champion for most of round one but was caught in a D’Arce choke that had Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier thinking her title reign was over.
The 34-year-old impressively defended the submission and proceeded to make Lemos pay with a series of ground strikes that threatened to end the fight.
Impressively, both women survived to see the second round.
Lemos had sporadic success with her punches in the second stanza, but Zhang dominated for the most part with her effective wrestling and relentless punch output.
READ MORE ON UFC 292
The strawweight queen took her dominance to the next level in round three and put her latest challenger in defence mode for the entirety of the five-minute frame.
Lemos enjoyed her best round of the fight in the fourth after her corner rightly pointed out that Zhang was tired after 15 minutes of wrestling attacks.
However, the champion responded as expected in the final frame.
Zhang scored a heavy knockdown early before proceeding to go hunting for a finish on the floor until the horn sounded and her latest fight went to the scorecards.
Most read in MMA
As the clock ticked down, UFC commentator Jon Anik announced that Zhang had set a new company record with her striking display against Lemos.
The 34-year-old finished on 296 strikes, more than any other woman has landed a single fight - Valentina Shevchenko previously held the record after landing 249 strikes at UFC 255.
Zhang outstruck Lemos, who only connected 29 times, by 267 to set another record for the largest striking differential in a female UFC bout.
She’ll continue to seek historic UFC wins against the top 115lb contenders which include Tatiana Suarez who is an undefeated prospect backed by Conor McGregor.