The rematch between Rose Namajunas and Zhang Weili played out much differently than their first fight, but the strawweight belt ended up around the same woman's waist.
Namajunas defeated Zhang via split decision (47-48, 48-47, 49-46) in the UFC 268 co-main event Saturday in New York to retain the title.
"I had a feeling it was going to be a way tougher fight. She improved a lot," Namajunas said in her post-fight interview, according to ESPN's Marc Raimondi.
Namajunas began her second reign as strawweight queen with a 78-second knockout win over former champion Zhang in April, but Zhang - who recently moved her training camp to the United States from her native China - made the rematch much more competitive, winning on one judge's scorecard.
Rounds 1-3 were all close, but Zhang seemed to be ahead going into the championship rounds. Zhang landed solid strikes in the clinch and also secured a takedown in the first round. She tagged Namajunas, who landed good low kicks in the second.
Zhang had Namajunas in some trouble on the ground at the end of the third, looking for a rear-naked choke before time expired.
The fourth and fifth rounds likely went in Namajunas' favor, with the 115-pound champ controlling Zhang on the mat.
With the victory, Namajunas extended her winning streak to three and moved to 6-1 in her past seven bouts. She won the belt for the first time in November 2017 before losing it in her second title defense against Jessica Andrade in May 2019.
Namajunas defeated Andrade in a rematch the following year, setting up a championship shot against Zhang. That fight ended in less than two minutes after Namajunas dropped Zhang with a head kick.
Zhang has now dropped two straight fights after starting her UFC career with five straight victories. She won 21 fights in a row overall before losing to Namajunas in April.
"Magnum" captured the strawweight belt in August 2019 with a first-round TKO of Andrade and had one successful title defense against former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
