Joanna Jedrzejczyk hasn’t fought since her incredible ‘Fight Of The Year’ battle with current strawweight champion Weili Zhang last year, but she’s now put the UFC on notice that she’s ready to return, and she’s looking to face the winner of this weekend’s title bout between Zhang and Rose Namajunas.
“I called [UFC matchmaker] Mick [Maynard] a few days ago and I just told him ‘you know what the baddest b*tch on the planet is back’ so book the fight, watch this fight and tell everybody that I’m next,” Jedrzejczyk told mmafighting.com.
“I was waiting for this fight. It’s COVID time, so that’s the only reason why the belt was not stripped. Because once a year you have to defend the belt. But we’re having COVID times but when I was the champ, I was defending this belt like crazy.”
It remains to be seen if the UFC will agree to Jedrzejczyk’s demands, but it certainly sounds like a real possibility given that the UFC reportedly plans to film the former champion’s reaction to the action during the UFC 261 co-main event.
It makes sense since Jedzrezjcyk has history with both fighters, and though some would suggest that she should perhaps have to taken another fight first before heading straight into another title fight, the 33-year-old feels her past success speaks for itself.
“I know there are so many people who are like ‘you lost, you have to prove it again.’ I proved it in my last fight, putting on f*cking hell of a show,” Jedrzejczyk said. “Giving the closest fight ever. That’s the thing. Fight of the year, no gender, no weights. It’s the ticket for the next title fight. That’s the thing. I just don’t want to fight for nothing anymore. That’s the thing.
“If I fight, I fight for big trophies and I don’t have to prove it to anybody.”
It helps that Jedrzejczyk is a big star in her native Poland, which has led to other opportunities outside of the sport, including being a judge on a dance-based reality TV show, being the subject of an upcoming documentary and also having an autobiography in the works, so she’s no longer dependant on getting regular fights to make a living.
Nevertheless, despite all her success she still has a desire to continue to compete and win back her title.
“I was the champ for a long time. It’s been a while. I lost the title to Rose Namajunas but I know my value. I gave the fight of the year, the fight of the decade and I know I’m still very good. I don’t waste my time. I keep on training all the time. I can’t wait to get back to American Top Team. I’m doing a big TV deal in Poland but can’t wait to get back to the states and start training with my team again.”
