On April 25th, Beijing time, Chinese mixed martial arts (MMA) player Zhang Weili ushered in her second grassweight title defense.

  Although the game time is close to noon, there are still a large number of fighting fans who got up early in the morning, waiting for the idols to appear on the stage.

Zhang Weili after being KO.

  Unexpectedly, this defending battle ended in Zhang Weili's quick defeat.

  Less than two minutes after the start of the game, Zhang Weili was hit by Rose's leg sweep and fell to the ground. Faced with the continuous blows of Rose Namayunas, the referee immediately stopped the game.

Zhang Weili failed to defend her title and lost her golden belt.

  Obviously, Zhang Weili did not expect that the game would end so soon.

  After being knocked down, Zhang Weili stood up bravely and tried to fight again, but the opponent did not give Zhang Weili any chance to fight back and directly pressed Zhang Weili under her body.

At the same time, the on-site referee also terminated the game.

  After the game, Zhang Weili said helplessly: "The game stopped too fast, I am still conscious." But competitive sports are cruel. Fighting matches usually only take a moment.

Although I failed to keep the golden belt, the encouragement from Chinese netizens became an even more moving force at this moment: "Victory or defeat is a matter of military affairs, and we will win it again next time!"

  In fact, Zhang Weili has been looking forward to this match with Rose for a long time.

As early as 2019, after getting the gold belt for the first time, Zhang Weili expressed her hope to compete with Rose on the same stage.

After two years of long waiting, she finally ushered in the long-awaited strong dialogue.

Zhang Weili is in the game.

  This game is the first time in a year, Zhang Weili once again returned to the audience's field of vision.

After ending the thrilling defending match with Joanna last year, Zhang Weili never participated in the game.

And affected by the US epidemic, Zhang Weili and her team were still stranded there for nearly two months at the time.

Zhang Weili, who has always shown her strength, also shed tears because of homesickness in an interview.

  There has been no competition for a long time, and Zhang Weili has already felt itchy.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency before, she said: “There is no competition this year. I feel very frustrated many times. Especially when I see many female players playing games on stage, I am very anxious and want to play. ."

  The "blank period" when there was no competition became a good opportunity for Zhang Weili to check the missing.

She once said frankly that after entering the training camp, there are only three things to eat, train and sleep every day.

On several occasions, Zhang Weili had cramps during training.

  After a long period of preparation, Zhang Weili felt that her skills and strength had been improved.

Before the start of the game, she also said many times: "The state is good."

Data map: Zhang Weili performs punch training.

Photo by Zhang Hengwei

  But this time, Zhang Weili is facing Rose, who is known as the "Thug Rose".

As early as a few years ago, Rose defeated Joanna twice and established his position in the field of mixed martial arts.

  Facing Zhang Weili this time, Rose also made a lot of preparations.

She has gained a lot of muscles, and her physique is obviously much stronger.

During the game, Rose launched a sudden attack on Zhang Weili.

Zhang Weili failed to respond in time, and finally gave her opponent a chance.

  It is worth mentioning that this is the second failure of Zhang Weili's MMA career.

At the same time, his 21-game winning streak, which is the best in the arena, also ended with regret.

  In 2013, Zhang Weili became a professional fighter.

Before that, Zhang Weili, who was once a champion of Sanda in Hebei Province, worked as a kindergarten teacher, front desk, salesman... By coincidence, Zhang Weili recovered her childhood dream and stood in the fighting arena.

Data map: In March 2020, Zhang Weili defeated Joanna to defend her title.

  After joining UFC in 2018, Zhang Weili began to be known by more and more people.

In 2019, she defeated Jessica Andrade in Shenzhen in 42 seconds, won the grassweight championship gold belt, and became the first person in UFC Asia.

The following year, Zhang Weili went through five rounds of hard work and won Joanna by unanimous decision. This game was also named the best game of the year by the UFC.

  The opening 1 minute and 18 seconds was KO by opponent Rose. This method really exceeded many people's expectations and fully reflected the cruelty of competitive sports.

  Whether it's a defending champion or a veteran of many battles, everything is possible in an octagonal cage.

But losing the game does not mean losing everything.

  After this ups and downs, Zhang Weili has a deeper understanding of UFC: "Only by defeating a great champion can I become a legend, and defeating a legend, I will become a new self. I used to aim to win the UFC championship, but today , I have a higher goal than the champion."

Screenshot of Zhang Weili's social media.

  Along the way, people who are familiar with Zhang Weili know how much effort and hardship she has put in.

Failure is not terrible. The terrible thing is that people still stand in the footsteps of failure after encountering failure.

But we have reason to believe that Zhang Weili, who has experienced strong winds and waves, will definitely not give up easily.

  After the game, netizens gave Zhang Weili’s voice of encouragement, and she shouted unabatedly with herself: "I will be back soon!" Such inspiring words will make the Chinese sports world look forward to the return of Zhang Weili with blood.

  Returning to the origin is just for a better start, as the lyrics sing: "Looking at success or failure, life is heroic, but it's just starting from scratch."