The title picture at women's strawweight - assessing the champion and the four top contenders



Spoiler: Table of contents

2. The fighters

2.1. Weili Zhang

2.2. Joanna Jedrzejczyk

2.3. Tatiana Suarez

2.4. Rose Namajunas

2.5. Jessica Andrade 3. What do you think? 1. Introduction2. The fighters - Introduction -

​

- The fighters -



Weili Zhang, current champion

​

August 31, 2019: Weili Zhang becomes champion, finishing former champion Jessica Andrade inside the first round via TKO.

Rather unknown to the majority of fans before her fight with Jessica Andrade, the main question for many was how good is Weili Zhang actually and is she able to continue her winning-streak and mind-blowing finishing-percentage, taking the giant step up in competition against relentless brawler and then-champion Jessica Andrade.

As it turned out, Zhang was not just able to beat the brazilian, but also to be the first person to finish her at strawweight, rocking her with a hard and perfectly accurate right hook to the jaw and landing vicious knees and elbows from the clinch on the wobbly-legged Andrade, TKOing her with a couple more strikes that dropped Andrade moving backwards and landing a few more on the ground, before the ref stepped in and stopped the fight 42 seconds into the first round. ​



Joanna Jedrzejczyk, ranked #4 ​

Joanna Jedrzejczyk landing a front kick in Valerie Létourneau's face at UFC 193, November 14, 2015. ​



Coming off a recent win against Michelle Waterson after losing three title fights in a row, the former strawweight-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk has once again reminded the world of mixed martial arts what she's been notorious for: Using her incredible striking proficiency to walk opponents down with an insane output, making use of a striking arsenal that involves all kinds of strikes, no matter if it's straight punches, front kicks or knees and elbows from the clinch,

Joanna Jedrzejczyk is the blue-print for how to use muay thai in an MMA-fight, being able to do everything necessary to keep the fight where she's most comfortable and beat her opponents on the feet.

Tatiana Suarez, ranked #3 ​

Tatiana Suarez landing heavy strikes on a helpless Carla Esparza. UFC 228, September 8, 2018.

With five wins in the UFC of which her latest two came against Nina Ansaroff and former strawweight-champion Carla Esparza who Suarez finished by ground and pound, the physically imposing two-time freestyle wrestling world championship bronze medalist can't help but to see herself continuously being compared to the undefeated lightweight-champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, as she - similar to the aforementioned dagestani - constantly and successfully takes her opponents down, pinning them to the ground, controlling and smothering them, throwing punches and elbows.

Rose Namajunas, ranked #2 ​

UFC 223: Rose Namajunas landing a right hand on Joanna Jedrzejczyk, contributing to her first title defense on April 07, 2018.

Having lost the strawweight belt to Jessica Andrade back in may this year, Rose Namajunas three fight win-streak came to an abrupt end. Beating the most dominant champion at women's strawweight to date, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, she's been the first fighter to beat and finish the striking specialist in mixed martial arts though and remains the only fighter to do so at strawweight, beating Jedrzejczyk back to back.

Coming from a taekwondo and karate background, the 27 year old Namajunas evolved from a somewhat wild fighter who liked to throw flashy kicks and regularly went for submissions from very difficult positions, to one of the most cerebral fighters in today's MMA and arguably the best boxer at women's strawweight - on top of having a fantastic submission-grappling skill set.

Starting off with her stand-up, she's very technical and fluent with her kicking, as it can be seen in her fight against Michelle Waterson, where she dropped the retreating "Karate Hottie" with a perfectly timed rear high kick to the head, but Rose Namajunas' biggest strength is boxing.

Working with Trevor Wittman, Rose Namajunas became extremely formidable at boxing, making use of great footwork and head movement to slip punches and get good angles to hit her opponents from.

The best examples of this are her three last fights, where she finished then champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk after dropping her with a perfectly placed left hook in the first fight, winning a competitive but unanimous decision in the rematch, where despite landing more strikes, Jedrzejczyk had difficulties hitting the agile and evasive Rose clean, while Rose on the other hand did more damage with fewer strikes, landing the better blows out of the two and last but not least: her most recent bout, in which she lost against Jessica Andrade.

Getting finished in the second round with a slam, Namajunas was piecing up Jessica Andrade on the feet, constantly moving in and out; hitting her with superbly timed punches, especially with her jab and cross, leading to a cut above Andrade's left eye.

When engaging in exchanges with Andrade from closer ranges, Rose did fantastic at slipping Jessica Andrade's punches while landing crisp counters.

Talking about Rose' defense, Andrade often exploded into forward-movement throwing her typical lunging blows, only for Namajunas to slip the punches and reset herself or move back- and sidewards, denying Andrade the opportunity to move into punching range.

Striking and especially boxing isn't her only strength though; in fact Rose Namajunas' brazilian jiu-jitsu and slick submission skills earned her half of her wins inside the UFC, as when being on the ground, Namajunas transitions very well between positions and works her way towards whatever submission presents the best opportunity to finish the fight with and despite the danger of ground and pound in MMA, isn't shy working from her back either.

Finishing Michelle Waterson, Paige VanZant and Angela Hill by rear-naked choke inside the UFC and having a win by a spectacular flying armbar during her days at Invicta, she's as mentioned a very skillfull submission artist and while her defensive wrestling isn't exactly the best in her division, as for example in her fight against Carl Esparza, where she's been taken down five times - albeit she's most likely improved since then - she's quite successful at getting her opponents to the ground, mostly using trips both away from and at the fence.

With potential that was always visible, Rose Namajunas was better each time she stepped into the cage, having evolved into an intelligent fighter who's not only a very talented submission-artist, but - despite being susceptible to leg kicks at times - also one of the best strikers in her division, having fantastic footwork and boxing that's probably second to none at women's strawweight.

Jessica Andrade, ranked #1 ​

UFC 228, September 08, 2018: Jessica Andrade viciously knocks Karolina Kowalkiewicz out.

Losing her last fight and with it the strawweight-title, juggernaut and former champion Jessica Andrade nevertheless is one of, if not the scariest fighter at women's strawweight. Heaps of power, unrelenting pressure, durability and insane physical strength make her an extremely dangerous opponent for everyone

and with four of her seven victories at strawweight coming by finish, it's her knockouts of Karolina Kowalkiewicz and fellow ex-champion Rose Namajunas that stand out the most and symbolize how she's able to tear down just about anyone who isn't capable to deal with the force she presents.

lands an astounding 7.22 significant strikes per minute

absorbs 6.15 significant strikes per minute

45% of the 131 strikes Andrade landed, where from the clinch.

- What do you think? - ​

With Weili Zhang beating Jessica Andrade and thus crowning herself the new queen at 115 pounds, Rose Namajunas wanting to come back and all four top contenders consisting only of former champions with the exception of the up and coming Tatiana Suarez, women's strawweight is more stacked than ever and makes for a title picture which is arguably second to none in terms of competitiveness.In this post, i'll assess the abilities of the current champion at women's strawweight, Weili Zhang, as well as the skills of the four contenders Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Tatiana Suarez, Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade one after another.Being a very active, striking-based figher, Zhang likes striking from further out, often using her lead leg to land kicks and gauge the distance, before she starts to string fluent combinations of powerful kicks and punches together to either land on the opponent in the first place or close the distance to catch her opponents in the clinch, in which she - despite not being very tall - is very dominant, which is not only attributed to hertechnical ability, but also her astonishing physical strength. Both of which can be seen in her short but dominant display against fellow powerhouse Jessica Andrade, who usually is the stronger woman at strawweight by a considerable margin.When comparing the amount of landed versus absorbed strikes, Weili Zhang is the most effective fighter out of the five mentioned, with a strike differential of 3.98, which is slightly higher than Jedrzejczyk's 3.9 and also absorbs the second least significant strikes per minute with 2.24, landing only behind Tatiana Suarez' 1.45, although it should be stated that fighters who dominate from the ground generally tend to absorb very few strikes, making the fact that Zhang is rather close to Suarez all the more impressive.Albeit being already very good on the feet with a so far perfect takedown defense of 100%, Zhang's strengths are not just stand up fighting; in fact, out of the five fighters here she's arguably the most dominant ground and pound fighter after the aforementioned Tatiana Suarez.Capable of taking her opponents down with numerous trips, takedowns and throws, Zhang is very dangerous on the ground, landing 26.2% of her total strikes on the ground, controlling her opponents while landing devastating blows, as it can be seen during her fight against Jessica Aguilar.Despite arguably preferring to maul her opponents on the ground, she is able to submit opponents too, finishing the aforementioned Aguilar with an armbar and having 7 out of her 20 pro wins by the way of submission, which also makes her the fighter with the most submission wins on this list.To sum it, Zhang - both technically and physically - really is an extremely gifted and well-rounded fighter, who, despite being mostly a stand-up figher is dangerous wherever the fight goes, with her only noteworthy weakness being sometimes a bit too reckless in boxing exchanges.A master in striking, Jedrzejczyk is very proficient with almost every type of strike there is, be it her quick jab, which she's using greatly to measure and maintain distance, set up other strikes or to hurt and pressure opponents, her accurate low kicks which are very effective in decreasing her opponents agility, like in her fight against Valerie Létourneau, where she broke the UFC record for the most leg kicks landed, with an astonishing 70 significant strikes landed to Letourneau's legs, or the front kick, landing in her opponents midsections or faces on a regular basis.The polish kickboxer is the very definition of a volume striker, as she's landing a whopping 6.53 strikes per minute, being only second to Jessica Andrade. However, Jedrzejczyk has by far the longest average fight time in her division, with an astounding 18 minutes and 29 seconds at strawweight and 18 minutesand 59 seconds in all fights, which - being the second longest average fight time in UFC-history - is a testament to her phenomenal cardio and conditioning.Examples for Joanna Jedrzejczyk outlanding her opponents by jaw-dropping amounts would be her fights against: Waterson, Andrade, Kowalkiewicz and Penne, where she managed to land three times as many strikes as her opponents on three occasions.While volume is a huge part of what makes Jedrzejczyk so successfull, Jedrzejczyk always remains accurate with her strikes and pretty much never gets reckless or abandons her defense in order to land, thus having a strike differential of 3.9 at strawweight and 3.45 overall, making her the 5th best fighter in this regard to ever grace the UFC while also having a significant strike defense of 66% at strawweight - the highest on this list.Footwork is another key in Jedrzejczyk's defense, as she's constantly moving; after throwing combinations, she likes to immediately step or pivot to the side, forcing her opponents to readjust and landing counters from these positions as well. Another thing which makes her hard to hit for someone with that output isher excellent use of linear strikes to keep the fight at distance and her opponents away from getting into boxing range, which can be seen in her fight against Jessica Andrade, where she constantly moved away from a charging Andrade, picking her apart from range.In general, she doesn't throw a lot of flashy stuff and keeps her game rather basic for the most part, making use of her all around great muay thai striking from the distance or the clinch, but also trying to back up her opponents against the cage to make them stationary targets.Having talked about her extremely dominant stand-up, it has to be mentioned that none of the above mentioned things would be possible, if it wasn't for her takedown defense, which is at 83% at strawweight; be it by sprawling in the middle of the cage or against the fence, the pole is pretty strong and extremely hard to take down and if taken down usually wastes no time to get back on the feet, as it can be seen in her fights against Andrade and Gadelha.A one-dimensional fighter in the best way possible, it generally takes very proficient counter striking and evasiveness to threaten her, as her ability to keep the fight where she excels at is almost second to none.As one would expect it from someone with the wrestling credentials of the 28 year old, Tatiana Suarez times her takedowns fantastically, leading to both an average of 6.47 takedowns per 15 minutes but also to a takedown accuracy of 62.9%, which makes her the 7th most accurate takedown-artist amongst active UFC-fighters and only for comparison: the aforementioned Khabib Nurmagomedov lands 5.35 takedowns on average per 15 minutes, while having a takedown accuracy of 47%, making the stats of Tatiana Suarez all the more impressive.Being such a great fighter taking it to and keeping it on the ground, the objective for the "female Khabib" is nothing else but to do exactly that and on the feet she's keen to take every chance she gets to do so, but most of the times without being convulsive and trying to grab a leg or a foot every five seconds, as she is very measured in that regard.When her opponent is taken down, Suarez is very strong, has great top control over the opponent and deals a lot of damage with heavy elbows and punches raining down from above.Being a jiu-jitsu brown belt, she successfully goes for submissions as well, resulting in two of her five victories in the UFC coming by submission; a rear-naked choke against Alexa Grasso and a brabo choke against Amanda Cooper.Standing with her opponents, Tatiana Suarez employs a southpaw-stance, leading with her right foot and moving a lot, throwing a lot of strikes with her lead leg from further range, mostly consisting of leg kicks to the opponents outside lead leg, but also lead hook kicks to the body, many of which can be seen in her fight against Nina Ansaroff.In terms of boxing, Suarez keeps it more basic and mainly throws straights.Generally speaking, her striking is not necessarily based on landing big hits, but more so to force opponents to start throwing strikes, so that she can change levels and take them down and also on outlanding opponents while staying in a rather safe distance, thus the bespoken kicks with the lead leg but kicking her opponents legs repeatedly also makes sense in terms of reducing their mobility, making it easier for her to shoot for her feared takedowns.Tatiana Suarez does an excellent job at using her great wrestling to win fights and despite being hittable at exchanges in closer ranges, generally has a very smart and effective approach to striking as well, making her a very serious contender in this division.Being a brawler, Jessica Andrade is known for her willingness to participate in ruthless exchanges, her power and output.At strawweight, Andrade, making her sit at the top of the list in this regard.With the ability to generate and more importantly sustain her fast pace, Andrade likes to overwhelm opponents, charging at them in a straight line, throwing powerful winging hooks, making them very effective once they land.Unlike most volume punchers though, Andrade hits very hard and is like mentioned above capable of one-punch knockouts, as she proved against Kowalkiewicz.Dangerous but also predictable in her striking, Jessica Andrade is willing to eat a few punches to land some, which in numbers means, that sheon average, which is a lot and by far the most out of anyone on this list.Being susceptible to counters due to her fighting-style, it's worth noting though, that Andrade is extremely durable and has a very good chin, making precise, crisp striking and a good striking defense mandatory to stop her in her tracks without getting hit while countering her.Walking her opponents down for the entirety of the fight, Andrade tries to get her opponents against the fence, where they're more stationary and Andrade's not exactly long reach of 62"/157 cm isn't a downside, to unload on them with a barrage of powerful blows and despite Andrade not being the most technical striker, she's great at mixing up high-low combinations, throwing a couple of strikes to the head to open up the body and vice-versa.A good example of this is her fight against Jessica Penne, where Andrade finished Penne by TKO.With her opponents against the fence, Andrade also goes for the clinch regularly, where albeit being quite short, she's really strong and dominant, hitting her opponents with knees and her trademark hooks and uppercuts, as it can be seen in her fight against Angela Hill, where nearlyJessica Andrade likes to "stand and bang", but when having her opponents against the fence and not goingfor the fast finish on the feet, she's very good at getting opponents to the ground, which she does a lot by picking her opponents up and slamming them to the ground with great technique and lots of strength, as she did several times in her bout against Claudia Gadelha but also most recently against Rose Namajunas.Putting her opponents to the ground or in the case of Namajunas even finishing them with these throws, Andrade does very good at not getting caught in her opponents guard right after and uses good top control along with heavy ground strikes to inflict damage, see the Gadelha-fight here as well.Primarily a "mauler" on the ground, Andrade certainly submits opponents too if the opportunity arises, having two wins by submission via guillotine-choke inside the UFC, but since moving down to strawweight, she's also more capable of defending submission attempts, defending both attempts from Claudia Gadelha in their fight.Same goes for her takedown defense, being only taken down twice in her nine fights atwomen's strawweight.Walking forward nonstop with unyielding pressure and power that is rarely seen in women's MMA, Jessica Andrade means business and has proven to be a big threat for anyone stepping into the octagon with her.With Weili Zhang recently having claimed the throne at women's strawweight out of nowhere, Joanna Jedrzejczyk looking as sharp as ever recently, Rose Namajunas having announced her comeback, Tatiana Suarez emerging as a serious contender at a rapid rate and former champion Jessica Andrade beingfinished for the first time in her career at strawweight, how do you think the future of the divison will play out? Who do you think might be a bad match up for Zhang and will she be able to defend her title or will there be a new queen at women's strawweight soon?