Joanna Jedrzejczyk denies tapping to strikes against Rose Namajunas at UFC 217, contrary to some reports.
One of the biggest upsets of the year happened on Saturday night at UFC 217. Rose Namajunas derailed Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s pursuit to tie Ronda Rousey’s record of six title defenses with a left hook inside two minutes of the first round, to become the third UFC women’s strawweight champion.
Some have claimed that Jedrzejczyk tapped to the Namajunas’ follow-up strikes from up top which led to the referee stepping in to stop the fight, but this is something that the former Polish champion vehemently denies.
“Someone said that I tapped, I never tapped,” Jedrzejczyk said on Monday’s MMA Hour episode (via MMA Fighting). “Are you kidding me? It was probably that I was trying to stand up, but I didn’t. It was a piece of a second for me.”
“I know it took a while – from the punch to the ground and pound when I had the turtle position, but for me, it was a like a piece of a second. I know it was a few long seconds. It looks totally different than people think it is.”
“I didn’t tap…I didn’t tap,” Jedrzejczyk reiterated. “I heard this, like two times, but come on…I didn’t tap…I didn’t tap. It was probably I was trying to stand up.”
The fight against Namajunas was the most vulnerable Jedrzejczyk has been in her entire three-year run in the UFC. Now that all is said and done, and she has experienced the first loss of her career, Joanna revealed that she was feeling slower than usual, which for her, is something out of the ordinary.
“Believe me that it was a mistake, and I felt like I was not there,” Jedrzejczyk explained. “I got cut, she cut me up and I felt like I was standing next to it watching it. I was like, ‘Let me go, what happened?’”
“I didn’t see the punch, the power of the punch. She didn’t hit hard, you know, but right to the point, I don’t know what happened. I just remember that during the warm-up I was feeling slower than usual. I don’t know why I must go to the fight week and figure it out.”
“Maybe there was something wrong with my brain or head, but I don’t know,” she continued. “I will figure out what happened because it’s unusual. I have almost 100 fights in my time in boxing and kickboxing. I had 15 fights in MMA and nothing ever happened before. It was the first time I got cut, someone knocked me down.”