In new anti-trust lawsuit documents revealed by Bloody Elbow, former undisputed strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk appears to have earned in excess of $2,000,000 for her successful divisional title defense against compatriot, Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 205 back in November 2016.
Jedrzejczyk, a stalwart of the promotion’s strawweight division prior to her officialy retirement from mixed martial arts competition back in June of last year, recorded a one-sided decision win over the then-undefeared, Kowalkiewicz at UFC 205, featuring as part of a championship tripleheader in the promotion’s first-ever venture to New York and Madison Square Garden.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk payday revealed for UFC 205 win
And according to lawsuit documents revealed and obtained by Bloody Elbow as part of the outlet’s recent deep dive into an ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the Dana White-led organization, Polish striker, Jedrzejczyk received pay-per-view points for her appearance on UFC 205 which featured Conor McGregor.
And as a result, the Olsztyn native earned a disclosed payday of $2,296,484 for her unanimous decision win over Kowalkiewicz at UFC 205 in November 2016.
A dominant prior strawweight champion, Jedrzejczyk, the promotion’s second-ever divisional gold holder, stopped two-time champion, Carla Esparza 2015 to win 115 pound gold.
Landing a series of successive successful title defenses, Jedrzejczyk defeated Valerie Letourneau, Claudia Gadelha, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and former champion, Jessica Andrade during her reign as strawweight champion.
Retiring from mixed martial arts following a stunning spinning-back fist knockout loss to current champion, Zhang Weili back in June of last year in Singapore, Jedrzejczyk has also turned in victories over the likes of Tecia Torres, and Michelle Waterson-Gomez during her Octagon tenure.
Linked with a potential return to the sport despite her retirement, Jedrzejczyk confirmed she had made plans to spring a surprising comeback to the Octagon, until lingering injuries forced her hand.
“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 said. “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.”
Would you have liked to have seen Joanna Jedrzejczyk make a UFC comeback?