Won’t back down
Jedrzejczyk refuses to be defined by ‘one bad night’ or any of her critics
CALGARY — Joanna Jedrzejczyk has learned a few things in the last year.
She’s learned to prioritize family over everything and that sometimes in the fight game you have to be a shark. She’s learned that in sports, discipline is key, and that sometimes, you need to block out the haters and just focus on the positive voices in your life.
For so long, she had ruled over the UFC’s strawweight division and had been looked at as almost invincible.
Then, last November, it all came crumbling down.
Jedrzejczyk, who fights Tecia Torres on Saturday at UFC Fight Night: Calgary, stepped into the octagon to defend her 115-pound title against Rose Namajunas and was on the receiving end of a first-round TKO.
Afterwards, though, Jedrzejczyk revealed that she’d suffered through a brutal weightcut in which she’d been forced to drop 15 pounds in 24 hours.
The cut had taken its toll on her and affected her performance. Of course it had, but that didn’t stop a certain section of MMA fandom from ripping into Jedrzejczyk for committing the cardinal sin of “making excuses” for her bad night.
Even after all she’d done in the sport, which was plenty, there were some who were alltoo-eager to tear Jedrzejczyk down.
It didn’t work.
“When we are young, when wearekids,wewanttohavea good job, get paid very well. We want to be famous with fancy watches and cars,” Jedrzejczyk said.
“I got to this point because of hard work. My parents taught me and because of my talent that I got from God. But I was never crazy. For me, family was always first, and faith and religion and my country.
“It’s a shallow world, and after I lost my belt I realized how much I loved my family and how much I love my life as a human being.”
On the surface, it doesn’t seem like losing the belt has shaken Jedrzejczyk’s confidence.
A few months after their first meeting, Jedrzejczyk and Namajunas met in the octagon again at UFC 223 and the fight went the distance, with Namajunas winning a close decision on the judges’ scorecards.
Jedrzejczyk didn’t agree with the way the bout was scored and firmly believes she won the fight, but regardless of who won, the close contest showed that she wasn’t just making excuses when she had initially spoken about how badly her weight cut had gone before the first fight.
In the April rematch, she’d looked healthier and faster and a lot more like the woman who had won six straight title fights and was the consensus poundfor-pound best female fighter on the planet for more than two years.
Jedrzejczyk made big changes between those two matches and cut ties with her nutrition team, Perfecting Athletes. It was a move that paid immediate dividends in her rematch with Namajunas, and makes the harrowing details of her weight-cut last November even more difficult to hear about.
“I had to push out from my body 15 (pounds) of water … I could die, but I’m a warrior,” Jedrzejczyk said. “People say I’m looking for excuses, bulls---. I did my job, I was on the scale, on weight, on Friday morning and I showed up Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
“I probably should have gone to the hospital and they (would have cancelled) the fight, but I didn’t do that.”
Another thing Jedrzejczyk didn’t do was shy away from the spotlight after the Namajunas fights.
She briefly considered moving up to fight at 125 pounds this spring, but after a conversation with UFC president Dana White elected to continue fighting at 115.
Her reasons for staying at strawweight aren’t that complicated. Jedrzejczyk believes she beat Namajunas when they fought in April and believes she’s the best strawweight fighter on the planet.
A win over Torres this weekend, then, should put her back in line for another shot at the belt, although she may not get another crack unless Namajunas loses the belt first. It’s rare in the UFC for any fighter to get a third bout against an opponent they’ve lost to twice.
“In my last fight, I had to prove to myself that I’m simply the best, that I’m the best strawweight in the world, and I did that,” Jedrzejczyk said. “(The other strawweights) cannot give good fights. On the card in Brooklyn (UFC 223), there were other strawweight fights, but you can see there’s a bigdifferenceandabiggame. I know they’re trying hard, but it’s a totally different level.”
Clearly, Jedrzejczyk’s confidence in her abilities hasn’t waned.
At times, the 30-year-old’s self-belief has seemed to make her a target for the segment of MMA fandom that delights in watching stars fall. She’s blocked those people out, though, and all she really needs to do to silence her critics is point to her resume.
“I had one bad night, but I was not myself, I was not a competitor that night,” Jedrzejczyksaid.“Iwasnever knocked out before and if people define my fighting career after this one fight, they should check my career before I became a UFC fighter. One hundred fights in Muay Thai, boxing and kickboxing. Sixtime world Muay Thai world champion, five-time European champion.
“My legacy is big and strong. For me, this is what matters.”