Before Rose Namajunas defeated Zhang Weili to claim the UFC strawweight title at UFC 262, the American expressed some odd opinions regarding her motivation heading into the fight.
On multiple occasions Namajunas stated that a source for motivation was that Zhang, to her, represented communism. Namajunas said this plainly by stating, “better dead than red” and Zhang “is red”.
Namajunas’ equating Zhang with communism appears to be based on Zhang being Chinese and China being lead by the Chinese Communist Party. Zhang is not one of China’s rulers nor has she said anything publicly that is especially nationalistic or pro-communist.