UFC Strawweight Champion Zhang Weili talks about how coronavirus affected her

On the most recent episode of UFC Embedded, Zhang Weili talked about her upcoming fight against Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248. At the event, Zhang will be facing Joanna in the co-main event of the night where she will be defending her title.

However, for her, the buildup to the event has not been easy at all. She has had to deal with multiple challenges, not the least of which was getting out of China, getting the permit to leave China and come to the US, due to the coronavirus threat that has swept the globe.

"So, the biggest impact of coronavirus was that I had to keep moving to different places. When it happened, it is a Chinese New Year, which is a national holiday. Basically, I didn't go anywhere except home and gym. But on February 1st, I got a notification from the UFC telling me that it was dangerous for me to stay in China. In order to ensure my safety, I had to transfer to Thailand. I had to leave right away. From Thailand, I went to Abu Dhabi, then to the US, two weeks later. I felt terrible at the moment and called my mom. I complained to her that I was exhausted."

She could not even leave China and come to the US directly and had to take a break journey, which was even more exhausting and can be disruptive to anyone's training. This was the case for her as well, and she even complained to her mother, who helped to put things in perspective for her.

"She said, "Those fighters at the front line, doctors, police... they don't even have tome to sleep. What you are going through is nothing compared to them." And she encouraged me to stick to my goal. I started to calm down after that conversation, because I know I'm not the only one fighting."

Please credit (h/t) Sportskeeda for any quotes taken from this article.