Zhang Weili finally addressed Rose Namajunas' comments that were made before their first fight. Namajunas drew a lot of controversies when she said ‘better dead than red.'

Zhang Weili admits the comments affected her but not just mentally. They affected the audience who then booed her.

“I think it definitely affected me a little bit,” Zhang Weili said on “The MMA Hour” (transcription via MMAJunkie). “The comments that Rose made, I think she was successful in making the audience boo me. But I think that’s my own problem because I should be concentrating on the fight and not the audience. I can’t control who the audience likes. So I’m becoming more focused on my own fight.”

She continued, “In my mind, I think that, yes, those comments crossed the line because I think all the audience, all the fighters, we all come together in the UFC because we all share the passion of the MMA sport. In my mind, I’m coming here because I want to make friends because we all have the common love of martial arts. I think it’s not a good thing to mix sport with politics, but I think that’s maybe her plan. So in the beginning, I thought it was just kind of trash talk. It really didn’t affect me. But when I went out in the stadium and got booed, I think Rose wanted to use those comments to make the audience boo me.”

It will be interesting to see how the rematch plays out at UFC 268. The rematch surprised a lot of people but Zhang Weili is grateful for the opportunity.