UFC 261 Final stats: Namajunas regains sets two strawweight records
Rose Namajunas didn’t land many strikes at UFC 261, but she didn’t need to
A lot changed for Rose Namajunas on Saturday night. The former strawweight champion became the first woman in UFC history to regain a title when she scored a quick knockout win over Weili Zhang. With her stoppage win, Namajunas also moved into the top spot in two categories in the UFC strawweight record book.
Namajunas lost the title in memorable fashion in 2019 when Jessica Andrade slammed her on her head. The impact knocked out Namajunas. Namajunas defeated Andrade in the rematch, but Andrade had already surrendered the title to Zhang before that 2020 matchup.
Namajunas regained the title in an equally spectacular fashion when she uncorked a kick that had Zhang thinking low. Instead, the strike went high and caught Zhang on the head. The ground strikes that followed the kick brought the fight to a close and returned the 115-pound crown to Namajunas.
With the stoppage victory, Namajunas broke ties in the knockdowns and finishes categories in the UFC strawweight record book. Namajunas was tied with Angela Hill and Amanda Lemos with three knockdowns ahead of UFC 261. As for stoppages, Namajunas had been tied at four with Andrade and Mackenzie Dern before Saturday’s event.
Namajunas’ knockout win over Zhang, which came at 1:18 of the opening stanza is the third fastest knockout in the 115-pound division.
UFC 261 took place Saturday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. The main card streamed on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+ and early prelims on ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass.
Below are the final fight stats for Zhang vs. Namajunas.