‘Not Interested’- Joanna Jedrzejczyk Refuses To Fight ‘Lower Ranking Girls’

Published 06/08/2021, 9:12 AM EDT

Former UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is one of the best fighters in the women’s division history. Such was her dominance that she remained undefeated for 14 straight MMA matches and defended her gold on five different occasions.

She finally found her match when she fought the current UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas in 2017. She lost twice in a row to ‘Thug’, including an immediate rematch for the title.

Even though her latest fight results are a mixed bag affair, she has repeatedly proclaimed that she wants to fight in big matches only.

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Recently, the former champ appeared in an interview with MMA Junkie. She again iterated her motive to fight elite-level stars. “Let’s see who Rose is willing to fight next, you know,” she said.

“Because I’m only interested in big fights. I know that people are saying that I lost and I should take on lower-ranking girls but I’m really not interested after putting on the fight of the year with Weili Zhang.

“I’m interested in only fighting one of them (Rose or Weili),” she added.

Joanna is ready to play the waiting game, but she is clear in her mind that she won’t be doing something that won’t interest her.

“Anything can happen, you know? It’s a big business, and I respect that. I just take my spot and wait. I can’t get pushed to do things I don’t want to do.”

“My legacy is so big.… I deserve what’s best–what’s best for me,” she concluded.

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Is Joanna Jedrzejczyk in contention to fight for the title?

The answer to the question depends on a lot of factors. Joanna (16-4) has already got her fair share of Namajunas matches. If it would have been 1-1, then UFC could have given a green signal for the trilogy proceedings. But that’s not the case here.

Second, there is a talk about Zhang getting her immediate rematch with Rose after her return. And this could be the potential way UFC sees in the future.

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Third, there is a certain former champion who has done everything in her grasp to knock on the door of the championship, Carla Esparza. The former and the first-ever division champion is currently riding on a 5 match win streak.

Joanna can still fight the top draws if the UFC goes ahead with Rose and Esparza’s rematch and thus she could tussle with Weili for the No.1 contender match. Also, she could get her ultimate wish to fight Namajunas if everything else fails to materialize.

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All these matches hang in the clouds of possibilities. It’s still in the raw phase but there are only a few fighters who can ask for the preferences of their fights purely based on their accomplishments and Joanna is certainly one of them. It now depends on UFC on how they want to go ahead with this.

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Written by:

Akshyay Mahapatra is a UFC author for EssentiallySports. He wished to combine his passion for the UFC (that he has been following since 2008) as well as his love for writing. This motivated him to enter the world of combat sports journalism.

‘Not Interested’- Joanna Jedrzejczyk Refuses To Fight ‘Lower Ranking Girls’

Is Joanna Jedrzejczyk in contention to fight for the title?

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