Joanna Jedrzejczyk: “I will never say Rose Namajunas is the best strawweight”
Since losing her UFC women’s strawweight championship to current champ Rose Namajunas at UFC 217 in November 2017, Joanna Jedrzejczyk has been on a mission to reclaim that very title.
Saturday’s UFC Calgary event was the first step in that mission when she faced the always tough an dangerous Tecia Torres whom she soundly defeated by unanimous decision.
With the win, it put Jedrzejczyk back in the winner’s circle an possibly a step closer to her much desired trilogy with Namajunas.
But even with an impressive win as this, it still might not be enough for Joanna to get the next shot, at least in Namajunas’ view, that is unless Jedrzejczyk does one little thing the current reigning strawweight requested of her not too long ago an something that the former UFC strawweight will probably never do, admitting her rival as the best.
Why should Joanna Jedrzejczyk have to do that you say? Allow me to refresh your memory.
A few months back, not too long after Rose Namajunas defeated Joanna a second time, she publicly stated that the only way she’d grant her another shot at her championship was if Jedrzejczyk admitted to her being the best UFC women’s strawweight.
Jedrzejczyk never responded to Namajunas demand. And at Saturday night’s at the UFC Calgary post-fight press conference, she bold vowed that she will never acknowledge Rose Namajunas as the best Strawweight.
“I will not do this,” Jedrzejczyk said at the post-fight press conference. “Never ever. She wants my honor? She must earn that. If she’s going to run, they’re going to make an interim belt. She was saying she’s afraid Conor McGregor will show up again and make a mess like he did before Brooklyn. He is not going to do this. Don’t be afraid, Rose. Come on. Just fight. Just face the best. You should face [Jessica] Andrade.”
“If not, I will chase you. If you hold the belt, I will chase you. Until the next fight. That’s it.”
While Jedrzejcyzk makes some good points, the only problem is the top of the UFC womens strawweight division is in a bit of disarray as there is no clear-cut contender.
To settle this, the UFC has booked a fight between top contenders Jessica Andrade and Karolina Kolwalkiewicz for UFC 228 on Sept.8, but even with that fight being made, Joanna Jedrzejcyzk has beaten both woman before as well all other contenders in the division.
On top of all of this, Rose Namajunas doesn’t have a title fight scheduled planned at the moment.
Unsure to as of why Namajunas isn’t planning on defending her championship any time soon, Jedrzejcyzk has suggested an interim title be made. Jedrzejczyk also doesn’t believe Namajunas reasoning for not defending her title soon is because of injury.
“I know how dedicated a fighter I am, how good [of an] employee I am for the UFC,” Jedrzejczyk said. “We all should be like this. Respect the work of the other UFC employees from the other side. The athlete department, the other departments. We should all respect each other, because we’re all working for one brand, for the UFC, for simply the best organization in the world. That’s it. If she’s injured, OK. But if she’s just playing, if she want to have holiday, let the UFC know that, ‘I want to have a holiday, I want to have a break.’ Let UFC make an interim belt and let’s fight for the belt.”
It’s safe to say Joanna Jedrzejczyk is motivated to win back her UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship, and nothing else after that.
According to Joanna, she still believes the two losses from Rose Namajunas are tainted, as the 1st loss by KO was a result of bad weight cutting an puts full blame on her former nutrition team.
The second fight she lost by decision, which Jedrzejczyk knows she won, was much closer.
Basically, Joanna doesn’t believe she has to give Namajunas the honor of the best UFC women’s strawweight especially when Jedrzejczyk feels she’s helped the 115 pound division get to where it is today, including defending the championship 5 times straight during her magical reign as champion.
In other words, Joanna Jedrzejcyzk still sees herself as the true Strawweight Queen.
“No way I’ll say Rose is the best,” Jedrzejczyk said. “Maybe you beat me, you’re the champion and you won. But your legacy isn’t that big. You should bow down, because I am the queen.”
