Joanna Jedrzejczyk Eyes Another Run at Strawweight Championship
Joanna Jedrzejczyk has said time and time again that she will once again reign over the UFC strawweight division. Now she feels that she is right in the mix of making that dream a reality.
The Polish star will face Michelle Waterson in the main event of UFC on ESPN+ 19 on October 12th. The winner may likely receive a title fight against the winner of current champion Jessica Andrade and Weili Zhang. Jedrzejczyk appeared on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show this afternoon and spoke on how motivated she is to get another crack at the strawweight belt.
“I feel the fire,” said the UFC women’s record holder for title fights. “Ask people at my gym how hard I train everyday. I feel like I got the whole universe right here in my power.”
Jedrzejczyk, who has not fought since losing to Valentina Shevchenko for the flyweight championship in December of 2018, debated on sitting out and waiting to get a championship fight, but ultimately decided to come back against Waterson.
“I think she is a great opponent for my next fight,” said Jedrzejczyk. Michele Waterson is very well known in the [United] States. She’s such a great athlete with plenty of experience as the former Invicta champion. She’s beautiful, well spoke and the fans love her.”
If Jedrzejczyk is to knock off Waterson, then we may see a rematch against Andrade, if Andrade can win her first title defense. In May of 2017, Jedrzejczyk steamed rolled Andrade in route to setting a UFC record for strikes in a championship fight by hitting Andrade 225 times over their five round fight.
Jedrzejczyk believes if the two were to meet again things would not change.
“Today I watched videos of her training and I know she was never a striker, but after seeing her train it’s not so good,” the former champion said.
Jedrzejczyk, who trains out of American Top Team, plans on staying in Florida to train for a few more weeks before heading back to Poland to celebrate her 32nd birthday on August 18th. She will return to camp in September giving her six weeks to train before fighting Waterson.
