Polish Combat Royalty, The Career of Legend: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Not many people can say they’ve had as legendary a career or made as big an impact in the sport of mixed martial arts as Joanna Jedrzejczyk. She was the one to really put Polish MMA on the map.
Krzysztof Soszynski played a big part in that himself, fighting in the UFC from 2008 to 2011, retiring after a knockout defeat at UFC 140 with a promotional record of 6-3. He however, as we all know, did not have the amount
of success Jedrzejczyk would in the coming years.
Jedrzejczyk would begin her combat sports tenure in amateur Muay Thai, where she went 37-3 over 40 fights, laying claim to a number of championships in the process.
This included a silver at the World Championships in 2008. She went on to place first, winning the championship gold medal in that same tournament the next five years straight from 2009 to 2013, becoming a five-time world champion.
She’d also claimed four IFMA European Championships along the way, and it was time for her to turn professional.
Jedrzejczyk would go on to win five more championships as a professional, including the WMC championship, WKN world championship, J-Girls championship, WBKF world championship, and WKF European championship, finalizing her professional career with a record of 27-3 across 30 bouts.
The Polish kickboxing standout then decided to try her hand at MMA, where she continued her greatness for some time, as she became one of the most feared women in the entire sport.
She would go 2-0 as an amateur prior to making her professional debut in May of 2012.
Jedrzejczyk would rack up six-straight wins over the next two years, before making her UFC debut in July of 2014. She was fresh off a victory over former UFC talent Rosi Sexton just a month prior, and she handily out-struck Juliana Lima throughout three rounds to earn her first UFC victory. 
A title eliminator bout would come next, as the division was still in its infancy. Jedrzejczyk would win a very close split decision over Claudia Gadelha, a fight where one of them would leave undefeated; Jedrzejczyk was 7-0, Gadelha was 12-0.
Jedrzejczyk was now going into her UFC strawweight championship bout against the inaugural UFC strawweight champion Carla Esparza, someone most believed would out-wrestle the Polish kickboxer handily considering Gadelha was able to secure seven takedowns against her in her last fight.
Not to mention the wrestling prowess of Esparza.
But Esparza would secure just one of 17 takedown attempts and be out-struck 66-5 en route to losing the title via 
TKO at 4:17 of round two. Jedrzejczyk just beat her down, and we had a new champion, the first ever Polish champion in UFC history.
She painted a true masterpiece for us in this fight. The precision, the accuracy and effectiveness of her strikes, it was a beautiful thing to witness. One of the most flawless performances in all of UFC history.
Jedrzejczyk would make her first defense against former Invicta FC champion Jessica Penne, and she’d have a very similar performance to her last. The champion stuffed all 11 of Penne’s takedown attempts and outstruck her 162-28, securing the TKO victory at 4:22 of round three.
Now that Jedrzejczyk was a well-established champion, the only strawweight champion ever to defend their title, she was matched up with longtime vet Valerie Letourneau, who was riding a four-fight win streak (3-0 UFC) coming in.
This one would go the distance with two judges giving Jedrzejczyk four rounds, and one giving her all five. It wasn’t quite the same as her first two title fights, out-striking Letourneau 227-103 in significant strikes, but it was still a dominant victory over a solid opponent, and a second title defense was added to her resume.
Now it was time for her to rematch Claudia Gadelha, who’d since defeated former WSOF strawweight champion Jessica Aguilar.
This fight showed a different story than their first; it was a similar fight, it was still close, but Jedrzejczyk would prove to be the better fighter without controversy when it was said and done.
Gadelha would secure four takedowns in 13 attempts but would be outstruck 176-63 in significant strikes. The scoring totals would read 48-45, 48-46, and 48-46, all in favor of the champion.
That was a big fight, especially considering how their first encounter went, about fifty percent of the MMA fanbase and media saw Gadelha winning their first fight. There’s that, as well as the two having just coached The Ultimate Fighter 23 opposing one another. But the next one would be even bigger.
Since Jedrzejczyk had been ruling the UFC’s strawweight division for a couple years now, it allowed time for some new contenders to join the UFC and climb the rankings.
One of those newer faces was fellow Polish standout Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who like Jedrzejczyk, was also undefeated (10-0).
They’d fought as amateurs with Jedrzejczyk walking away the victor. But, when Kowalkiewicz turned professional (which was ironically exactly one day before Jedrzejczyk’s professional debut) she won and defended KSW flyweight championship prior to joining the UFC with a record of 7-0, and quickly went 3-0 inside the promotion before being granted her title shot.
Kowalkiewicz’ most recent win was also over future champion Rose Namajunas, who was always very hyped to become something great. It’s just too bad this fight between Jedrzejczyk and Kowalkiewicz took place at MSG in New York City.
It isn’t often you hear that, is it?
This fight would’ve best been suited to go down in Poland, of course.
Nonetheless, Jedrzejczyk would handily cruise to another unanimous decision victory, out-striking Kowalkiewicz 181-63 in total strikes, winning four rounds to one on all three judges’ scorecards.
Next she would defend her throne against future champion Jessica Andrade, who came into the bout on a three-fight win streak.
Jedrzejczyk would be taken down twice in ten attempts but would out-strike the Brazilian a whopping 230-94 in total strikes, winning all five rounds of the contest.
This victory would mark the fifth defense of Jedrzejczyk’s title reign, which to this day is still a record in the division, but sadly, it would all come to an end in her next fight.
Going into her sixth title defense against the 6-3 Rose Namajunas, everyone believed she was being fed an easy fight.
As mentioned above, we all had high hopes for Namajunas, but we also all felt it was far too early for her to be fighting someone like Jedrzejczyk. But she shocked the world with her first-round knockout to end the champions long and dominant reign.
That to this day remains one of the greatest upsets in MMA history.
An immediate rematch would ensue, rightfully so, but Jedrzejczyk would end up on the wrong side of the scorecards, suffering her second-straight defeat to the same person, falling from 14-0 to 14-2.
Jedrzejczyk did out-strike Namajunas 160-108 in total strikes, and 145-105 in significant strikes, but the judges didn’t believe it to be enough.
Jedrzejczyk would return less than four months later to defeat fellow top contender Tecia Torres in a relatively lackluster affair. She did at the least handily defeat Torres, out-striking her 81-54 whilst defending all ten takedown attempts.
But it was a clear win, all three judges scoring it 30-27, and that’s what she needed. 
Jedrzejczyk then moved up to 125 lbs; the UFC needed someone to fight Valentina Shevchenko for the UFC flyweight championship, as the shall-remain-nameless inaugural champion was stripped.
Though Jedrzejczyk had lost to Shevchenko three separate times in kickboxing, she took the fight in hopes of becoming a two-division champion. However, she’d only win one round of the five-round affair.
She was taken down five times, but she stuffed nine of those attempts, and she kept the striking totals close; she out-struck Shevchenko in total strikes 124-118 but would be out-struck in significant strikes 78-89.
Jedrzejczyk would take a little time off following this defeat, before returning to 115 lbs ten months later to face another fellow top contender in Michelle Waterson. She’d go on to out-strike Waterson 226-71 in total strikes, 180-58 in significant strikes, and even secured three takedowns over the course of their five round main event.
Jedrzejczyk looked great, and it granted her a shot at the new UFC strawweight champion, Weili Zhang.
The first ever Asian UFC champion, hailing from China, Zhang was 20-1 as a professional, had only ever lost her first 
fight via decision, and she’d just taken the title from one of the most violent women in MMA, Jessica Andrade, via knockout in just 42 seconds.
Expectations were set high for this fight, and my did it deliver. 11 different media outlets awarded it Fight of the Year in 2020, that’s a pretty universal decision.
Unfortunately, after out-striking Zhang in both significant and total strikes, just barely, the split decision was awarded to Zhang, and Jedrzejczyk would again taste defeat.
It was such a close fight, it was such an epic, violent war, it really could’ve gone either way.
Nonetheless, Jedrzejczyk would take two years off before returning 27 months later to face Zhang in a rematch.
This was a very highly anticipated encounter, as you could imagine.
It was the feature fight at UFC 275, which hosted back-to-back title fights following this epic rematch.
Zhang, since defeating Jedrzejczyk, had gone 0-2, losing both fights to Rose Namajunas, just as Jedrzejczyk did.
Despite losing twice since defeating Jedrzejczyk, the activity may have helped Zhang, because she was absolutely on point at UFC 275.
She hurt Jedrzejczyk badly, dropped her, took her down three times and pounded the living hell out of her in the first round, and then spinning back fist KO’d her at 2:28 of the second. It was hard to watch, we’ll say that. It was a straight up beatdown.
But it doesn’t take away from what Jedrzejczyk has done, and it doesn’t take away from the warrior she is. She already made history that has yet to be beat, she already has money that she’s made from fighting, as well as her ventures outside the cage.
She’s a true star, a legend, and she still decided to come back, and she still decided to get up off that stool right before the start of the second round in her rematch with Zhang.
Like most of the very best in combat sports, Jedrzejczyk had a hard fall from grace, going from 14-0 to retiring earlier this year with a record of 16-5 at 34 years of age. She only ever lost in title fights up until her rematch with Zhang, and still, she’s only ever lost to world champions at their respective peaks.
Jedrzejczyk deserves all the respect in the world, she’ll go down as one of the greatest kickboxers, and one of the greatest female mixed martial artists to ever do it.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk Career Accomplishments:
Kickboxing/Muay Thai
- 37-3 amateur record
- Six-time medalist at World Championships (5 gold, 1 silver)
- Five-time World Champion
- 27-3 professional record
- Five-time champion (three world championships)
Mixed Martial Arts
- UFC strawweight champion
- Most title defenses in UFC strawweight history (5)
- Most title bouts in UFC strawweight history (9)
- First ever Polish UFC champion (one of two, Jan Blachowicz later became light-heavyweight champion)
- First ever female European UFC champion
- 3rd-ever European UFC champion
- Tied with Amanda Nunes for most women’s UFC title fights (10)
- Most consecutive wins in UFC strawweight history (8)
- Tied with Angela Hill & Tecia Torres for most unanimous decision wins in UFC strawweight history (6)
- Highest strike differential in UFC championship history (+142 against Jessica Andrade)
- 2nd-highest strike differential in UFC championship history (+121 against Karolina Kowalkiewicz)
- 3rd-highest strike differential in UFC championship history (+117 against Valeria Letourneau)
- 4th-highest strike differential in UFC championship history (+113 against Claudia Gadelha)
- Highest significant strikes thrown in a UFC championship fight (225)
- 2nd-highest significant strikes throwing in a UFC championship fight (220)
- Most leg kicks landed in a single fight in UFC history (78)
- 2nd-most leg kicks landed in a single fight in UFC history (75)
Joanna Jedrzejczyk retires from MMA competition with as many consecutive title defenses as Kamaru Usman, Matt Hughes, Tito Ortiz, Amanda Nunes (BW), and Israel Adesanya, they all have five.
She has more than the likes of Frank Shamrock (4), Tyron Woodley (3), Renan Barao (4), Chuck Liddell (4), Alexander Volkanovski (4), BJ Penn (3), Max Holloway (3), Khabib Nurmagomedov (3), Benson Henderson (3), Frankie Edgar (3), and Chris Weidman (3).
She sits behind just seven names: Demetrious Johnson (11), Anderson Silva (11), Georges St-Pierre (9), Jose Aldo (7), Valentina Shevchenko (7), and Ronda Rousey (6).
Thank you Joanna Jedrzejczyk for sharing with us your illustrious career, it was certainly a pleasure to watch.
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