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Rose Namajunas has already defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk two times before, so a trilogy fight probably wouldn’t make much sense between them. But with a title on the line, anything’s possible.
That’s why Jedrzejczyk says if she happens to reclaim her women’s strawweight title with a win over division queenpin, Weili Zhang, at UFC 248 on March 7, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada, she wants her first title defense to come against Namajunas.
“I am really proud of myself and my team of how we fought that last fight against Rose Namajunas. The fight could have gone either way and the loss was hard to swallow and maybe I didn’t do enough,” Jedrzejczyk said to BJPENN.com.
Rose initially knocked out Jedrzejzcyk at UFC 217 in the very first round back in 2017 to claim the 115-pound strap. Five months later, Namajunas scored another win over the Polish-born striker, earning a unanimous decision win at UFC 223. It’s a loss that still haunts Joanna, which is why she wants the chance to prove she has what it takes to defeat “Thug Rose.”
“Now, I know I believe in myself 100 percent and can do enough to win. I’m really happy for Rose that she is back and fighting Andrade and having the rematch. We will see what is next, but that fight makes sense as it is big money. I want that one.”
Namajunas lost her title to Jessica Andrade at UFC 237 after “Bate Estaca” knocked her out with a vicious slam. Three months later, Andrade was knocked out by Zhang in China (see it), giving us the third women’s strawweight champion of 2019.
Should the title change hands yet again at UFC 248, we could be in line for a trilogy fight between Jedrzejczyk and Namajunas, assuming “Thug Rose” can exact some revenge on Andrade at UFC 249 the following month.