At UFC 217, Rose Namajunas shocked the mma world when she defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk to win the UFC Strawweight Championship.
Since that astonishing defeat, Jedrzejczyk has struggled a bit inside the octagon, as the Poland native lost her rematch to Namajunas and the UFC Flyweight Women’s Championship bout against Valentina Shevchenko.
The 32-year-old has gotten back on track a bit with her win over Michelle Waterson at UFC Tampa, and Jedrzejczyk will get a chance to be on top of the strawweight division again when she faces the current UFC Strawweight Champion, Weili Zhang, this March at UFC 248.
The former UFC Strawweight Champion spoke on UFC Unfiltered and revealed that she’s been dealing with personal issues, which held her back a bit inside the octagon since her fight against Rose Namajunas at UFC 217 (transcript courtesy of
MMA Fighting):
“Life of a single [woman],” Jedrzejczyk said on UFC Unfiltered.
“People in Poland know more, but people in the states and worldwide, they don’t know much about my private life. The last two years were pretty difficult for me. It was a rough time, and I feel like 2019 is a special year, so I can’t wait for 2020. I broke up with my fiance, and we broke up before my first fight with Rose Namajunas, and this terrible weight cut happened, and I broke up again.”
“This year I found out that my [previous Polish] manager messed up my money, and then I found out that my fiance was cheating on me. That girl called me; I think that she was afraid that I was going to beat her up so badly, but I was like, ‘No, I’m kidding.’ I just want to show to people and tell people that there’s always something going on in our lives. It doesn’t matter who you are. If your private life is not going in the right direction, you’re not going to be successful in the sport, or in the business.”
Despite her recent setbacks, the former UFC Strawweight Champion is excited for the new year, as Jedrzejczyk has nothing holding her back from fighting at her fullest potential inside the octagon:
“This year was amazing, and I cannot wait for that coming 2020. Now I feel free. I feel me, I feel Joanna again. I’m more smart, I’m more experienced. Maybe shitty things happened in my life, but it has to happen somehow. I’m happy. I know what life is about now. When I turned 30, I thought I knew a lot and I had experienced a lot. I was broken in my life, so dedicated to the sport, losing my mind into the sport, working so hard. But that’s the difference – I’m happy now,”
UFC 248 takes place on Saturday, March 7 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with no main event announced at this time.