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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President, Dana White, recently marveled at the passion and dedication of reigning strawweight champion, Weili Zhang, who lives, breathes, and eats mixed martial arts (MMA).
He also took a swipe at former division titleholder, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, for spending too much time at the beach ahead of her UFC 248 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event, taking place this Sat. night (March 7, 2020) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Man, I bet she hasn’t trained more for this fight than me,” Jedrzejczyk told TSN. “I’ve trained 30 times a week, three times per day, and I put in hard work. Some people like to go home and do nothing. Drink beer or watch TV. I don’t do that. I like to enjoy my life. I want to do stuff I really love to do. I don’t have to do things people want me to do. So I am living my life. I don’t live your life. I don’t need someone’s life. People are just jealous, you know?
Jedrzejczyk (16-3) is just 2-3 over her last five fights and 0-3 in championship bouts, which is a far cry from her days as strawweight champion, when she jumped out to 14 straight wins. Perhaps that had something to do with White’s “lifestyle” critique?
“I don’t care about it, they can say whatever they want to say,” she said. “I know who I am and how good an athlete I am, so I don’t care what they say. I like to do stuff outside the gym, I’m a person with so many passions and hobbies, people shouldn’t tell me what I can do, or I can’t, or I should do, or I shouldn’t be doing, I don’t understand this.”
Zhang understands, and has her own theory on the rise and fall of Jedrzejczyk.