The after effects of Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s war with Weili Zhang were hard to take for the former champion.
The pair battled for 25 minutes in a classic at UFC 248 last month with many regarding it as the greatest fight in women’s mixed martial arts history. Unfortunately for Jedrzejczyk, she didn’t come out on top as she lost a narrow split decision to the champion.
To make matters worse, she suffered a huge hematoma on her forehead that continued to swell as the fight went on. It became classic meme material and although she did laugh at some of them afterward, the pain she was in after the fight was a different story.
“They did a small medical procedure on my ear, I had a CAT scan,” Jedrzejczyk said in an interview with SCMP. “I had an ultrasound, I had an X-ray, and honestly, after a fight like this, I felt like every touch from the doctors and nurses, everything was so painful.
“I didn’t want anybody to touch my body, and I felt like my heart was bleeding, like my soul was bleeding.”
Jedrzejczyk has already spoken in the past of the damage she took in the fight. And while she does question how long she wants to remain in the sport, she has no plans to retire as of yet.
“That’s a question I ask myself every day,” she added of retirement. “I’m not getting any younger. I’m only getting older. I took lots of damage in my last fight and I’m really grateful that nothing serious happened to me. It was only bruises. Every next fight is going to be a big risk, and I want to be a mother in the future.
“… If I put on a hell of a performance, a hell of a war, why retire? If I was not training hard, if I was getting knocked out, if I was losing fights like a p****, then I could retire – but I’m a warrior.”
What do you make of Jedrzejczyk’s comments?