This weekend at UFC 261, Weili Zhang and Rose Namajunas will meet in a strawweight title fight with historic implications.
If Zhang defeats Namajunas to notch a second successful defense of the title, she will have defeated the last three women to hold the belt — Namajunas, Jessica Andrade and Joanna Jedrzejczyk — in consecutive fights. Even taking Jedrzejczyk’s five title defenses into consideration, that feat would make a fairly compelling case for “Magnum” as the greatest strawweight in the division’s brief history. On the other hand, if Namajunas unseats Zhang and becomes the division’s first two-time champion, it could easily vault her into divisional GOAT status, considering that “Thug Rose” is 1-1 against Andrade and 2-0 against Jedrzejczyk.