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In her last three title fights, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, is 0-3, losing back-to-back fights to Rose Namajunas and then coming up short against Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant Flyweight title (see it again here).
But if all goes as planned against Michelle Waterson, Joanna could be back in a title fight sooner, rather than later. That’s according to American Top Team (ATT) owner Dan Lambert, who says UFC has told Joanna that she will get a title fight at 115 pounds if she can defeat “Karate Hottie” at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 161 event on October 12 in San Francisco, CA.
“I guess I’ll tell you after camp and how the weight cut went. She has the best chance to get a title shot at Strawweight. The UFC told her with a win she gets a title shot. I’m happy to see here have a clear path to get a title shot,” Lambert told BJPENN.com. “With no clear path, she was not going to rush back. I’m happy to see her back training.”
While it seems logical that Waterson earns a shot at the title by beating Joanna to collect her fourth straight win, Jedrzejczyk getting the same chance after her recent bad stretch is a bit puzzling.
Indeed, Joanna’s run at Flyweight was one and done after coming up short to “Bullet,” dropping back down to Strawweight after UFC 231. While she still intends to eventually return to 125 pounds in search of her second division strap, fighting at her natural weight seems to be the quickest way to a championship fight.
As it stands, current 115-pound champion Jessica Andrade is set to face Weili Zhang on August 31, 2019 at UFC Fight Night 157 in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China in what will be her first-ever attempt to defend the title after knocking out the aforementioned Namajunas.
According to Lambert, if the stars align and both Andrade and Joanna win, a rematch between the two is up next.
“From Joanna’s standpoint, the path to a title shot is quicker with Jessica holding the title. Selfishly speaking we were hoping for Jessica,” he said. “She has to defend her title first [against Weili Zhang], and who knows how that goes. After Joanna’s and Jessica’s fight if they both win the UFC will make that fight.”
Joanna already has a win over Andrade, taking her out at UFC 211 back in 2017 to retain her title. Since then, however, it has been two drastically different stories for both ladies, as Jessica has won four in a row and collected her first UFC title, while Jedrzejczyk has gone 1-3 and lost her belt.