Joanna Jedrzejczyk gives foot update, eyes championship fight
Joanna Jedrzejczyk turned the clocks back and gave a vintage JJ performance on Saturday night, by dominating Michelle Waterson.
Following the fight, the only area of concern for the former strawweight champion was whether or not her right foot was broken.
In the fourth round of Saturday’s main event, Jedrzejczyk’s foot swelled up and was black and blue. Luckily for the greatest straweight in UFC history, her foot isn’t broken.
“I got the results yesterday and my foot was not broken,” Jedrzejczyk said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on ESPN. “The swelling was so big, and I had lots of pain during the fight. I thought it was broken. And even all the tests I had before the X-ray, and all the doctors were saying it’s broken, it’s fractured, but it’s not.”
Now that the Polish fighter has avoided a broken foot, she plans on taking a vacation before heading back to American Top Team to train for another championship fight.
“I would not sign the agreement before this fight with Michelle Waterson if I was not going to fight for the belt after the victory,” Jedrzejczyk said. “Done deal. They need me more than you think.”
Jedrzejczyk (16-3) speaks highly of the new strawweight champion Zhang Weili (20-1), but she feels that it’s her destiny to reclaim the belt.
“Before the fight with Michelle Waterson, my big goal was to be a challenger, but now I know that I will get the shot and become the champion one more time in my life,” said Jedrzejczyk.
Not only does JJ feel confident that she’s next, but the other top contender, Tatiana Suarez also appeared on the show and said she’s still dealing with her neck injury, while also having disk issues.
With Suarez banged up, Jedrzejczyk’s and Weili will likely fight in early 2020. Jedrzejczyk is fine with the quick turnaround after only fighting once in 2019.
“I carry myself as the champ and people can doubt me all they want. I put on a hell of a performance,” the UFC record holder for title fights by a woman said. “After the Valentina Shevchenko fight, I rested my body and my mind and everything felt good.”
Jedrzejczyk held the strawweight championship from 2015 to 2017. She holds a 6-3 record in championship fights.
