Heading into her UFC women’s strawweight championship rematch with rival Claudia Gadelha in the main event of Friday’s (July 8, 2016) The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 23 Finale from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s popularity may haved waned a bit after the most recent season of TUF portrayed her as a ruthless coach when her team didn’t perform up to her lofty expectations.
Yet while it’s not the best look for “Joanna Champion,” the Polish Muay Thai sensation isn’t going to blame anyone for her actions, telling MMA Junkie after today’s (July 5, 2016) TUF 23 Finale open workouts that it was not the production team that made her look a bit harsh, but her and her intense rivalry with Gadelha:
“I can’t blame the ‘TUF’ production (team), Claudia Gadelha or myself. I said what I said and I did what I did. But the thing is that, in our regular life, we accept some people and some of the people, we don’t accept. (Claudia) is a person who I don’t accept, and that’s all.”
As for Nova Uniao product Gadelha, Jedrzejczyk said it was her toughest opponent’s desire to dethrone her that lead her to actiong so rough during the taping of TUF 23, and that the show didn’t fully capture all of what went on:
“I know that she wants to take my belt, my life, my dreams, my goals away from me. I cannot let her do this, and that’s why I was acting like this (on the show). The production couldn’t fit all the stories (in the series). I know the stories, and I can tell you honestly there’s no time to show everything that happened there. There were so many good stories, good moments.”
While Jedrzejczyk did come under intense scrutiny for going off her team – even calling them “p*****s” at one point – the dominant, brutalizing striker noted she wants to try being a TUF coach again, and that her team members still contact to say she changed them, so that’s enough for her.
However, with arguably the most important fight of her life coming up against Gadelha, whom she beat via controversial split decision back at 2014’s UFC on FOX 13, ultimately it was her own career and her own life she had to focus on:
“I would like to do this one more time, even though it showed me as a bully person, because the most important thing was being a coach, and a friend for all of my fighters,” she said. “I’m still receiving messages from my fighters. They said I changed some of them, and I’m happy. That’s the most important thing. Sometimes you cannot tell, but I was real, and I’m sorry that you saw bully Joanna. But it’s me when I must fight for myself, for my dreams, my goals, my life…”
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