Joanna Jędrzejczyk has demanded that she face the winner of the Weili Zhang vs. Rose Namajunas bout, and she could care less about your opinion on the matter.
Former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk has become quite familiar with title fights during her illustrious career in this sport. In fact, since 2015, only two of Jędrzejczyk’s fights have not been for the title. The flip side of that statistic is that since 2017, “Joanna Champion” has gone 0-4 in title fights.
This Saturday at UFC 261, two women will be competing for the title which she once carried with so much pride: the UFC strawweight title. Jędrzejczyk will be a very invested spectator when this highly anticipated fight goes down, especially considering that she has asserted that she will be next for the winner. What’s more, she asserts that disagreeing fans and the UFC matchmakers themselves all need to come to terms with it.
“I called Mick [Maynard] a few days ago and I just told him ‘You know what? The baddest b*tch on the planet is back’ so book the fight, watch this fight and tell everybody that I’m next…” Jędrzejczyk demanded.
“I know there are so many people who are like ‘you lost, you have to prove it again.’ I proved it in my last fight, putting on f*cking hell of a show,” Jędrzejczyk continued in the MMA Fighting interview. “Giving the closest fight ever. That’s the thing. Fight of the year, no gender, no weights. It’s the ticket for the next title fight. That’s the thing. I just don’t want to fight for nothing anymore.”
Title Shot Or Bust For Jędrzejczyk?
Joanna Jędrzejczyk has losses on her record to both Zhang and Namajunas. Most recently, she lost to Zhang in the aforementioned fight of the year at UFC 248 last March via split decision. More than a fight of the year, it was truly one of the greatest fights in UFC history. Part of what made the fight so epic is, to Jędrzejczyk’s point, how close the bout was.
As for Rose Namajunas, Jędrzejczyk would have a harder case to make for a title shot against her since Thug Rose holds not one but two victories over the Pole: one finish and one unanimous decision. Jędrzejczyk shrugged off this fact and asserted that those losses do not diminish her value, so she will only fight for big prizes and nothing less.
“If I fight, I fight for big trophies and I don’t have to prove it to anybody,” Jędrzejczyk said. “…I want to get the winner of this fight. I won’t stop. That’s the thing. If I was losing fights by knockout or if I was losing the fights on points and the difference was big but it’s not. I always put on a show and the fights are very close so I want to keep on going.”
Jędrzejczyk stated that she wanted to wait until fans returned to UFC arenas before she considered making a return. Now that fans are set to be out in the open, The Boogeyman is back on the prowl, setting her sights on two women who will be fighting over something she believes belongs to her.
What are your thoughts on Joanna Jędrzejczyk’s argument for a world title shot against the winner of Weili Zhang vs. Rose Namajunas?
