Joanna Jedrzejczyk believes Jessica Andrade wasn’t 100 percent for Weili Zhang fight

Joanna Jedrzejczyk doesn’t think Jessica Andrade was completely healthy going into her title defense against Weili Zhang.

Andrade was coming off a second-round knockout win over Rose Namajunas to win the strawweight title. In her first title defense at UFC Shenzhen, she had to go into enemy territory to battle Zhang who was just 3-0 in the UFC at the time.

Ahead of the fight, the majority of fighters and fans thought Andrade would defend her title. Yet, that is far from what happened. When the opening bell rang, Zhang, charged after the Brazilian and hurt her early. She threw a bevy of punches and knees and TKO’d Andrade in 42 seconds.

It was no doubt a dominating performance for Weili Zhang. Yet, for Joanna Jedrzejczyk, she says she heard Andrade had a difficult weight cut and was not completely healthy.

“I don’t want to take anything from Weili because she shocked the world and beat Andrade. But, I don’t think Andrade was 100 percent and what I heard that she had a pretty rough fight week in China before their fight,” Jedrzejczyk said to BJPENN.com. “The weight cut, re-hydration, you could tell Andrade was not herself. Weili is a very dangerous fighter, though.”

Now, in the co-main event of UFC 248, Zhang is looking to defend her strawweight belt for the first time when she battles Joanna Jedrzejczyk. In the fight, the Pole is the underdog but she told BJPENN.com she’ll make the champion quit to reclaim her belt.

Whether or not Andrade had that hard of a weight cut for her fight against Zhang is unknown. But, Jedrzejczyk believes that played a factor but knows the champ is a dangerous fighter.

What do you make of Joanna Jedrzejczyk saying Jessica Andrade wasn’t 100 percent for her fight with Weili Zhang?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 3/5/2020.