Thug Rose crumpled Weili Zhang with a crisp head kick to become the UFC's newest women's champion

• Thug Rose floored Weili Zhang with a perfect head kick Saturday at UFC 261 in Florida.
• The 75-second knockout win saw the strawweight annex the UFC championship.
• Watch the finish right here.

Thug Rose crumpled Weili Zhang with a clean, crisp head kick to become the UFC's newest women's champion.

It was a masterful performance from Rose Namajunas at UFC 261 in front of 15,259 fans Saturday at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, as the strawweight beat Zhang in just 75 seconds.

"It just feels really great," said Thug Rose in a statement sent to Insider after her win.

"At the end of the day, it's about doing my best, so no matter what the result was, I was proud of myself for stepping in there today and doing my thing."

Thug Rose threw just eight strikes, landing four, but that was all that was required to knock out Weili.

It was a left high kick that landed with such aplomb that Weili was felled instantly by the impact against her chin. She closed the show with hammer fists, sealing the quick-fire win.

Watch the thorny finish right here:

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"I saw her body fall over really stiff and I was like, 'Oh, dang, that definitely worked a lot better than I thought it was going to,'" Thug Rose said.

"But I did see that kick landing in my mind leading up to this fight. I didn't think that was going to be the finish, but that was one of many ways I saw this fight going."

Weili won the UFC title in 2019 when she beat Jessica Andrade in the first round of a strawweight fight in Shenzhen, China.

She then defended it the following year in one of the greatest bouts of all time, in a fight that left both her and opponent Jessica Jedrzejczyk disfigured by the wanton damage.

Thug Rose has no intention of relinquishing the title any time soon.

"No matter who my opponents are, I want to defend this as many times as I can, but what I really want to do is to use this to build MMA academies in a couple of different locations - so that's the idea and vision that I had this week."

The title win followed a bitter promotion

Thug Rose's victory over Weili followed a bitter promotion in which the American-Lithuanian said she thought it is better to be "dead than red" - a reference to communist China.

"I don't think it's any coincidence that Weili is red. That's what she represents," said Namajunas to Lithuanian National Radio and Television earlier this month.

"It's nothing personal against her, but that's a huge motivating factor of why I fight. I fight for freedom. I've got Lithuanian blood and the American dream."

Though the comments were criticized by sections of the combat sports media, Weili seemed unfazed.

"From an exchange of blows, friendship grows," Zhang said, according to the South China Morning Post.

"So I hope maybe we will become friends after this fight. She is a competitor with very good ability and I have always hoped I can fight with her.

"I feel a connection to those who fight martial arts, and we build friendships through the martial arts. We learn from each other and exchange our views when we fight together."

With the victory, Thug Rose advanced her pro-MMA record to 10 wins (two knockouts, five submissions, and three decisions) against four losses.