Zhang Weili of China celebrates after her victory over Joanna Jedrzejczyk of Poland in their UFC strawweight championship fight on March 7, 2020 in Las Vegas. Photo: VCG

China's UFC star Zhang Weili heads to the Octagon again on Saturday night in New York's Madison Square Garden with a chance to win back her belt.

Zhang lost the strawweight title to US fighter Rose Namajunas in a swift defeat in Florida in April.

"Thug Rose" delivered defeat with a head kick early in the first round to stun "Magnum," who looked visibly shocked after the fight was called.

Zhang immediately called for a rematch and UFC boss duly delivered. Her chance comes as the co-main event on the UFC 268 card this weekend, with millions sure to be tuning into the fight back home on Sunday morning (Beijing time).

The buildup to this fight has been markedly different to the first fight with the Lithuanian-American.

"I was bothered by what she had said," Zhang told Yahoo Sports this week in the leadup to the rematch.

"The political comments Rose made got the audience not to support me. It was beyond [fair play]. It crossed a line. I don't feel as friendly toward Rose as a fellow mixed martial artist as I did before. I have a lot more training and I have had a lot more focus on myself."

Zhang had gone into their first fight talking of friendship with her fellow fighter but there was nothing friendly from Namajunas in the buildup.

"I think it definitely affected me a little bit," Zhang told "The MMA Hour" podcast.

"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."

"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," she continued.

"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."

The pre-fight chatter from Namajunas was a lot more heated than the buildup to Zhang's previous title defense against Poland's Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

"Joanna is very direct and blunt, but Rose is more fake and not very direct," Zhang told Yahoo Sports. "Joanna is direct as could be, and I knew what I was dealing with. But Rose had a different way and it crossed a line. But it's got me motivated."

She should not need much motivation given the nature of her defeat in their first fight but Zhang has rung the changes ahead of the rematch.

Zhang split from her management, Suckerpunch Entertainment, which also managed Namajunas.

She confirmed the move to Ariel Helwani last month. "It's just because he managed both me and Rose. I think it's very difficult for him," Zhang told Helwani, via translator.

Zhang has also moved her whole training camp to the US for the first time as well as linking up with former Olympic wrestler and UFC veteran Henry Cejudo.

"Obviously, him being an Olympic gold medalist, there is a lot he could teach me about wrestling," Zhang told Yahoo Sports of Cejudo. 

"But he understands [MMA] so well and he helped me in more ways than just [learning to wrestle]. I am better because I have worked with him."

Cejudo has been glowing in his praise of Zhang.

"When I talk about Zhang Weili, she is literally a Ferrari. The only problem is, she needed those Ferrari engineers. She needed that right oil," Cejudo told The Triple C and Schmo Show last month.

Zhang will need to be better as she goes into the fight on the back of the worst defeat of her career, her first coming back on her professional MMA debut to fellow Chinese fighter Meng Bo back in 2013.

Zhang also goes into the fight as the underdog with the bookmakers but she is hoping for some support from the New York crowd.

"I have been to New York City once, but I've never been to Madison Square Garden," Zhang told the MMA Hour. "I'm very much looking forward to the fight, and I'm also expecting there will be some Chinese audience that will want to go to cheer me. But I also adjusted my mentality. Even if the audience boos me, I will just think they like me."

That's the view of Zhang's fellow Chinese UFC fighter Li "The Leech" Jingliang.

"I think it's normal because it's not my first time competing in a foreign country. It's not the first time the audience may boo me. I think it's very normal," Li told MMAMania.com ahead of his UFC 267 fight against Khamzat Chimaev.

"It's not about how people support me or not. The only thing that matters is if you trust yourself, if your team supports you.

"A great team, a great athlete won't be defeated by all the booing," Li added. He was overrun by Chimaev in their fight but Chinese fight fans will be hoping for better from Zhang when she takes to the Octagon.

Regardless of what the fans say or do, Zhang said that she thinks that she can win back her belt.

"It will show the spirit I have to overcome problems and find a way to be successful," she told Yahoo Sports. "I am confident I will do it. Rose lost the belt and then regained it, and I feel I can do that, too."

She will get a chance to prove that on Saturday night.