UFC 261 results: Rose Namajunas KOs Zhang Weili with head kick to reclaim title

Rose Namajunas once again has UFC gold in her hands.

The now two-time UFC strawweight champion dethroned Zhang Weili to reclaim the 115-pound belt. Namajunas (10-4 MMA, 8-3 UFC) knocked out Weili (21-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) with a head kick in the first round of their championship fight. The official stoppage came at the 1:18 mark.

The women’s strawweight title bout was the UFC 261 co-main event at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.

It was a quick and easy night for Namajunas.

Namajunas hovered on the outside of the octagon while Weili took the center of the cage and threw kicks. In one of the exchanges, Namajunas went upstairs with a left high kick and dropped the champion to the canvas.

From there, Namajunas jumped on Weili, landed ground-and-pound and forced the referee to stop the fight. Weili stood up and protested the call, but she was stumbling on the canvas still hurt from the head kick.

Namajunas is now 5-1 in her past six performances. She previously held the UFC strawweight title from 2017 to 2019 and lost the belt to Jessica Andrade at UFC 237. But she came back to avenge her loss to Andrade, who had lost the belt to Zhang, and got a title shot.

Weili suffered her first UFC loss. She defended the belt once in a 2020 “Fight of the Year” back UFC 248 in early 2020.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 261 results include:

• Rose Namajunas def. Zhang Weili via knockout (head kick, punches) – Round 1, 1:18

• Valentina Shevchenko def. Jessica Andrade via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 3:19

• Uriah Hall def. Chris Weidman via TKO (injury) – Round 1, 0:17

• Anthony Smith def. Jimmy Crute via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) – Round 1, 5:00

• Randy Brown def. Alex Oliveira via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:50

• Dwight Grant def. Stefan Sekulic via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

• Brendan Allen def. Karl Roberson via submission (heel hook) – Round 1, 4:55

• Pat Sabatini def. Tristan Connelly via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

• Danaa Batgerel def. Kevin Natividad via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:50

• Kazula Vargas def. Rong Zhu via unanimous decision (30-26, 29-28, 29-28)

• Jeffrey Molina def. Qileng Aori via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)

• Ariane Carnelossi def. Na Liang via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 1:28

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Twitter reacts to Rose Namajunas' title-winning KO of Zhang Weili at UFC 261