Joanna Jedrzejczyk: ‘I Cannot Let My Last Two Fights Define Me as a Fighter for My Legacy’
Joanna Jedrzejczyk can’t allow herself to get mired in regret.
As the former UFC women’s strawweight champion prepares for her first non-title fight since 2014, Jedrzejczyk refuses to dwell on her pair of losses to Rose Namajunas but rather uses those defeats as motivation to fuel her going forward.
While Jedrzejczyk knows exactly what went wrong in the first fight after she suffered through a brutal weight cut leading to the event, she truly believes that the rematch should have gone her way.
The Polish fighter ended up losing a decision and while the result still doesn’t sit well with her, Jedrzejczyk says she moved on right away and only allowed the loss to make her prepare even harder for the next battle ahead.
“It’s motivation. People don’t believe me or agree with that,” Jedrzejczyk said ahead of her fight at UFC on FOX 30 in Canada. “I’m an athlete and of course it’s two losses in a row but the thing is if she knocked me out like in the first one — the reason that she knocked me out was that my brain was not hydrated enough — and I know who I am. People think I talk bulls–t but I do not talk bulls–t.
“Last fight, it was a close fight and it was Rose’s night to be champion but when we look at statistics, I landed like 30-percent more punches. That’s a lot. That’s a judges’ mistake. She’s still the champion, she won. Maybe in their eyes I didn’t do enough. The thing is 80 punches landed for Rose and 132 landed punches for me and if the fight goes to a decision, what’s the point of scoring the fight for Rose Namajunas? Because of only one takedown? How the judges can measure the power of her punches by looking at my face? Come on guys.”
As much as Jedrzejczyk didn’t agree with the judges scoring her fight that night, she was able to compartmentalize her disappointment without allowing it to fester in the back of her mind for too long.
Jedrzejczyk can look at that fight and know deep down that she should be holding the UFC strawweight title right now but that’s not the case so she’s moving forward with her next matchup against Tecia Torres on Saturday night.
Rather than focus on the past, Jedrzejczyk is resigned to think only about the future — one where she’s grasping that strawweight championship again.
“I know at the end of the year or the beginning of the new year, I will be a champion again. That’s my spot,” Jedrzejczyk said. “I’m a better athlete everyday, a better fighter and this is what I think about. I’ve turned the page. I don’t think about my last two fights with Rose Namajunas anymore.
“The night of the fight, I turned the page already.”
While it’s not uncommon for any athlete to carry a loss like an anchor that just continuously weighs them down, Jedrzejczyk refused to allow that to happen to her.
As much as she wants the UFC title back and hopes to get a third crack at Namajunas in the future, Jedrzejczyk can only worry about what’s directly in front of her right now and that’s getting a win over Torres at UFC on FOX 30.
“I cannot let my last two fights define me as a fighter for my legacy,” Jedrzejczyk said. “So I’m very happy that I’ve got this offer and I’m back.”
