Joanna Jedrzejczyk Knows Her Next Opponent Could Emerge From UFC Fight Night Poland
Newly crowned UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk took the MMA world by storm last week, parlaying her intense staredowns with former champion Carla Esparza into a dominant two round performance that saw the decorated Muay Thai striker become the first-ever Polish UFC champion.
Thought to be the clear-cut top women’s 115-pounder in the world, the smaller Esparza couldn’t come close to dealing with Jedrzejczyk’s length and power.
That wasn’t all that lent to Esparza’s downfall, however.
Talking during an appearance on today’s The MMA Hour, she said she thought her trash talk leading up to the bout had “The Cookie Monster” broken before the fight even started:
“I think I break her. She didn’t know what to expect. Maybe she thought that I am crazy. I am really nice. But not in the cage.”
Jedrzejczyk will understandably have a ton of attention when she returns home to her native Poland, and her coach already told her that she’d be met with a storm of fans and media the minute she touches down:
“He said everyone is crazy about me,” Jedrzejczyk said. “The media is going to wait at the airport and they’re gonna arrange some press conference in my city, because the media go crazy, you know?”
The Polish fans and media will also be going crazy for the UFC’s debut there on April 11, when Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic takes on old foe Gabriel Gonzaga in the main event of UFC Fight Night 64.
Jedrzejczyk’s gaze, on the other hand, will be mainly focused on the two pivotal women’s strawweight bouts that feature her UFC on FOX 13 opponent Claudia Gadelha vs. Aisling Daly and Joanna Calderwood vs. Maryna Moroz, from which her next contender could potentially emerge. The new champ said even the UFC doesn’t know who it might be.
“One of them could be my future opponent, but I don’t know who,” she said. “So we’re gonna see. Even Dana doesn’t know.”
She made history in Dallas and appears poised to take the 115-pound landscape by storm in 2015. In order to do so, Jedrzejczyk said that while she wants to stay in her native Poland, the United States obviously boasts the best female training partners for MMA.
“I will stay in Poland, but I will come to U.S.,” she said. “In U.S., there are lot of good fighters, female fighters. Lots of different sparring partners. So it’s good.”
The future looks bright for the UFC’s unlikely new star, and that’s nothing but good news for the UFC’s blossoming female division. But the specter of her highly controversial decision win over Gadelha still lends a shadow of doubt over the legitimacy of her reign.
Will she soon meet her punishing Brazilian enemy in the Octagon once again?
Photo Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
