Ex-Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk firmly ends comeback plans: ‘I’m not chasing this anymore’
Former undisputed strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk has confirmed her plans for a permanent retirement from mixed martial arts competition despite recently claiming she was considering a comeback earlier this year, insisting she is now “calm” in ending her tenure in combat sports.
Jedrzejczyk, a former undisputed UFC strawweight champion, most recently competed on the main card of UFC 275 back in June of last year, suffering a second round spinning-back fist KO loss to fellow former champion, Zhang Weili in the pair’s championship-eliminator rematch in Singapore.
The Pole confirmed her plans for an immediate retirement from mixed martial arts competition following the defeat to two-time opponent, Weili, ending her storied stint in the sport.
However, the fan-favorite revealed recently how she had been contemplating a return to combat sports earlier this year, had suffered an injury whilst training at her native American Top Team, putting an end to those plans.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk confirms permanent retirement from MMA
And commenting on a failed comeback to the UFC this year, Joanna Jedrzejczyk admitted that while it was a difficult decision to make, she is firmly closing the door on a return to mixed martial arts.
“I was back to American Top Team at the beginning of this year, at the end of January (and) I wanted to see if I was able to be back and train really hard, and I was,” Joanna Jedrzejczyk told MMA Junkie during a recent interview. “I was training really hard for two, three times a day for 13 weeks. Everyone was asking if I was coming back and coming out of retirement. Honestly, I wanted to be back. I wanted to give myself one more chance. But then my (shoulder injury) happened again, it came back with double the power it used to hurt before.”
“I got really sad,” Joanna Jedrzejczyk continued. “Very emotional. But I got calmness in my heart and soul. It’s what I was looking for, for eight months after I retired. I feel like I’m in the spot where I’m not chasing this anymore. That’s a good thing. Sad, difficult, but I feel calm. This is what I was missing the first few months after I retired.”
The second-ever strawweight champion in the history of the promotion, Jedrzejczyk won undisputed gold with a second round TKO win over Carla Esparza back in 2015, before turning in successful title defenses over Valerie Letourneau, Claudia Gadelha, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and Jessica Andrade – an outstanding divisional record still.
