By:  | June 9, 2023 9:57 am

Weili Zhang has shared some exclusive footage from her training camp in Phuket. The reigning UFC strawweight champion has been preparing at Bang Tao Muay Thai for her upcoming title defence.

Zhang is booked to face Amanda Lemos at UFC 292 in Boston on August 19th. She appears to have been training in Phuket for nearly three months, the champion was back in the gym on March 18th just days after her last fight.

That was just six days after she submitted Carla Esparza at UFC 281 to become a two time strawweight champion. With that fight barely lasting a minute she clearly decided not to take a break afterwards.

Underneath her latest video Zhang declared that,

Our confidence comes from our preparation.

Long term

Based on the footage she is sharing Zhang seems to be working very hard on her strength and conditioning. Of course it is possible she doesn’t want her opponents to have access to footage of her honing the MMA skills which made her a champion.

Zhang has brought long term trainer John Yodpetch with her to Phuket. The Muay Thai veteran first started working with her in China and has been a part of her team for several years.

Last month she did share some footage which showed her working on those devastating body kicks:

Disappointing year

While Zhang’s background is in sanda but she has really embraced Muay Thai. The 33 year old spends more time in Phuket than she does n China and recent results suggest that this has been a shrewd career move.

She stopped Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 275 in Singapore last year to earn a $50,000 USD performance bonus and a shot at the belt. Zhang followed that up with the submission victory over Esparza in New York.

Zhang made the decision to relocate to Phuket following a pair of losses in 2021. At the time she was training in the US, primarily at Fight Ready in Arizona, but it seems the Chinese fighter had a rethink after back to back defeats at the hands of Rose Namajunas.

She is now back on top of the MMA world and significantly richer after picking up performance bonuses for her last two wins. Training in Thailand has given Zhang a new lease of life and she will be looking to make it three wins in a row this August.