Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Strawweight queen, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, will throw down with former Invicta FC champ, Michelle Waterson, this Saturday (Oct. 12, 2019) at UFC Fight Night 161 from inside Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
After a perfect (8-0) start to her UFC career that saw her capture and defend the 115-pound crown multiples times, Jedrzejczyk has lost three of her last four bouts. Admittedly, the situation isn’t quite as bad as it sounds on paper — all three of those losses were title fights, and her two opponents remain among the best on the planet. However, it’s still a situation that places Jedrzejczyk in need of a victory, particularly if she’s to fight for the title again at any point in the near future.
First and foremost, she needs to prove that she can make weight tomorrow. It’s been an unnecessary distraction this entire fight week.
Nevertheless, let’s take a closer look at the former champion’s skill set:
Striking
Jedrzejczyk is still the queen of volume. Though she’s no longer seen as an unstoppable force of nature, the former Muay Thai champion is plenty capable of overwhelming her opponents with a constant onslaught of strikes.
As a pretty lanky striker, Jedrzejczyk is excellent with her jab. Jedrzejczyk does a nice job keeping her hands moving and actively feinting, allowing her to suddenly shoot out a long jab. With her jab, Jedrzejczyk can both maintain distance and walk her opponent to the fence. In addition, Jedrzejczyk mixes it up by jabbing to the body often.
Jedrzejczyk builds off the jab well. Once she establishes the strike, the Polish kickboxer is soon following it up with more punches. If her opponent begins looking to parry or block Jedrzejczyk’s jab, she’ll switch it up by shifting her head off the center line and attacking her opponent’s mid-section with a left hook.
As with most educated jabs, a good right hand is often going to follow. Jedrzejczyk will frequently rely on the overhand right. She doesn’t try to kill her opponent with one punch or lose balance, but Jedrzejczyk does well to find a hole in the guard.
In her bouts with Gadelha, Jedrzejczyk made great use of the uppercut (GIF). Gadelha has a habit of ducking down while she punches, and in order to block her opponent’s tight overhand, she was keeping her left forearm glued to the side of her head. Together, these traits left a path wide open for the uppercut.
Jedrzejczyk is incredibly active with her kicks. She mixes roundhouse kicks fluidly into her attack and throw at any target, but Jedrzejczyk puts an extra focus on low kicks. For example, she set a UFC record by punting Valerie Letourneau’s leg 70 times. In very classic Muay Thai fashion, Jedrzejczyk frequently punctuates combinations with the low kick. Similarly, her counters are very classic Muay Thai. After blocking a punch or kick, Jedrzejczyk almost always responds with a pair of punches and kick of her own.
In addition, Jedrzejczyk has been using the front kick for some time. It’s a great strike to throw against wrestlers because it’s difficult to catch and effective against those with bent posture (GIF).
In the clinch — and in wrestling exchanges as well — Jedrzejczyk uses head position as a weapon. When she’s pinning her opponent into the fence, Jedrzejczyk will drive her forehead into her opponent’s jaw and secure one underhook. With her free hand, she’ll land small punches until breaking away with a heavy elbow.
Defensively, Jedrzejczyk does a nice job maintaining range and forcing her opponent to reach for her. Plus, after throwing a combination, Jedrzejczyk will pivot or side step away (GIF). More often than not, this causes her opponent’s counter punches to come up short.
The best example of Jedrzejczyk’s footwork came against Jessica Andrade. As is her nature, Andrade repeatedly bulled forward and whipped a heavy left hook, but it landed on nothing but air. Jedrzejczyk was quick dedicated to her strategy, constantly circling away from the wide shots and switching directions. Jedrzejczyk also landed repeated counters, slipping out to the side of Andrade’s swings and landing back (GIF).
Despite Jedrzejczyk’s discipline with her tight guard and exit routes, the Rose Namajunas’ losses did show the weaknesses to her approach. Jedrzejczyk is a reasonably mobile fighter, but her style is very much Muay Thai, which tends to work best against fighters who are more willing to stand still or back straight up. Namajunas feinted and false started constantly, which often drew Jedrzejczyk’s somewhat predictable two-punches-and-a-kick counter only to land at air. Jedrzejczyk cannot help but try to engage, and Namajunas took advantage of that habit by making her miss and then landing big shots of her own.
Namajunas is a remarkably sharp kickboxer herself, but I would expect Waterson to attempt something similar and take advantage of those same habits.
Wrestling
Jedrzejczyk is not much of an offensive wrestler, but she grew quickly to become one of the best defensive wrestlers in her sport.
First and foremost, Jedrzejczyk has a very strong sprawl (GIF). If she’s able to see her opponent’s shot coming, she’s quick to get her hips flat to the mat. Once she breaks her opponent’s grip, Jedrzejczyk will frame her opponent’s face and return to her feet.
In addition, Jedrzejczyk does a very nice job sprawling against the fence. She’s excellent at widening out her base and really stretching out her opponent’s arms, making it impossible to clasp hands. From there, she’ll fight for underhooks and look to move the fight into the clinch where she can strike or break away.
In recent years, the only woman to find any consistent success with taking Jedrzejczyk down was Valentina Shevchenko. Shevchenko’s size and strength advantage were definitely apparent and helpful, but the wrestling style match up favored “Bullet” as well. Shevchenko excels with clinch trips and throws, which are generally a bit more success against Jedrzejczyk than a level change and shot.
While defending takedowns, Jedrzejczyk routinely manages to damage her opponent. This is a very useful talent, as it interrupts attempt to chain wrestle, causes fighters to abandon good wrestling position for safer spots, and deters future attempts.
As mentioned above, Jedrzejczyk uses her head very well. Each time women like Gadelha and Esparza shot for a single leg, Jedrzejczyk would sprawl out and overhook the arm that was latched onto her leg. Initially, she would frame the face with her other hand, but Jedrzejczyk would soon replace that hand with her forehead. With that arm now freed up, Jedrzejczyk was able to score with elbows and punches and force her foe to abandon the shot.
In addition, Jedrzejczyk punishes opponents on their way back up. As her foe looks to return to a kickboxing stance after a failed shot, Jedrzejczyk takes the opportunity to fire off a combination of punches, slam home an elbow, or dig a knee into the body. Usually, she’s able to land before her foe gets back to good position, meaning they’re essentially free shots.
When Jedrzejczyk is taken down, she’s very good at wall-walking back to her feet. She doesn’t bother playing any type of guard game once on her back; on the contrary, Jedrzejczyk just begins scooting toward the fence. If she can get her back to the cage, Jedrzejczyk will be back on her feet before long, as she does a very nice job fighting hands and methodically work back up into the clinch.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Jedrzejczyk has yet to attempt a single submission in her UFC career — her focus is on denying the takedown attempt, punishing her foe for trying, and then breaking away quickly. On the occasions she’s been put in bad positions, Jedrzejczyk has patiently worked her way free, thus far giving her opponents few real options at submissions.
Conclusion
Jedrzejczyk was the world’s best female Strawweight for several years, but we’ve also now seen her struggle for the last two. It’s still possible that she retake her perch atop the division, but Jedrzejczyk needs some vintage “Joanna Champion” violence if she’s to earn another title shot.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Fight Night 161 fight card this weekend, starting with the ESPN+“Prelims” that are scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. ET, then the main card portion that will also stream on ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET.
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Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.