The former strawweight champ reveals she’s been training every day in anticipation of a return to the cage.
Back when the pandemic kicked off, former women’s strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk declared she wasn’t interested in fighting without the fans and would return when arenas started filling up again. Well, that time is now and true to her word, “JJ” is back in America, back in the gym, and preparing for her next fight.
“I’ve been training really hard for not weeks but months, even twice a day,” Jedrzejczyk told The Schmo in a new interview. “I know people don’t see lots of training posts on my social media but I do training every single day and I manage my daily schedule, daily routine for training.”
“So training is always at the highest priority in my life because I’m an athlete first. But I’m also a celebrity — I don’t like this word, but I do lots of TV, lots of media, commercials in Poland. And I became a businesswoman, I am about to open two more companies in September. But of course I feel this fire and I’m very motivated to fight again soon.”
As for what Joanna thought of Carla Esparza’s recent win and campaign for the next shot at current champ Rose Namajunas?
“This is what she thinks, she has a few wins straight, winning streak” she said. “But hmmm, I think the next challenger should be ‘JJ’ or Weili Zhang.”
“This is what I agreed to, only,” she added with a smile.
As for who Jedrzejczyk would like next, it’s clear she’s gunning for Rose or Zhang.
“Both fights are possible and are very interesting, not only for me but for the other girls as well, for Rose or Weili Zhang, for the UFC, and for the fans,” she said. “So we’ll see what happens next.”
Honestly, if the UFC doesn’t want to give Namajunas a chance to avenge her loss to Carla Esparza from 2014, we wouldn’t mind seeing a contender showdown between Esparza and Jedrzejczyk. Joanna cleaned Esparza’s clock pretty thoroughly in the fight that earned her the women’s strawweight belt for the first time, and you’d think after a year away from the cage, she might welcome what some would consider a warm up fight before attempting another run at 115 pound gold.
Hey, we’re just spitballing here. We could also just watch Jedrzejczyk, Zhang, and Namajunas fight each other for the next two years straight. Whatever gets “JJ” back in the cage, we’re here for it.