Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s reign atop the strawweight division has been bloody, to say the least. The Polish striking phenom made former foes Carla Esparza and Jessica Penne look like victims ripped straight out of a horror flick, battering their faces with a dizzying array of precision strikes. But Jedrzejczyk’s next challenger, Canadian veteran Valerie Letourneau, isn’t afraid of the challenge that awaits on Nov. 15 at UFC 193.

“I’m not impressed,” Letourneau said Tuesday on The MMA Hour. “I like [Jedrzejczyk’s] style, I like her as a fighter. Like I said in other interviews, I was looking at her more as a fan. If my memory is good, I think even when she fought (in the UFC) at first, I wasn’t fighting at 115. I was not even looking at her like a future opponent.

“So, I’m not impressed because I fought such tough girls in my career. I’m never going to go in there scared or anything. I’m just doing my best, and I prepare myself the best that I can for my opponent. I have an awesome coach, I have every tool here, and I know I’m capable of doing anything.”

Letourneau isn’t the challenger many expected to face Jedrzejczyk next. That honor goes Claudia Gadelha, the No. 1 ranked contender who was promised a shot at the belt after dispatching Jessica Aguilar at UFC 190. But a lingering hand injury to Gadelha and the UFC’s desire to pair Jedrzejczyk alongside Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 necessitated a search for a new opponent, and Letourneau fit the bill.

It’s an unexpected turn of events for the former bantamweight who just two years ago faltered in her first opportunity in the big show.

Back in 2013, Letourneau fell victim to a first-round submission at the hands of Roxanne Modafferi in the opening round of The Ultimate Fighter 18. The season marked the first time women were ever featured on the UFC’s flagship series, and Letourneau was forced to return to the regional circuit for one more fight after failing to make it onto the show proper.

“I had to get over it right after, because I knew that fight doesn’t represent me as a fighter at all,” Letourneau said. “To lose against Roxanne, (there’s) no shame in that because she’s a fighter who I really respect and I’ve been watching her for a long time.

“It’s just the way I fought there. I almost gave up before the fight. I didn’t feel like I wanted to be there. I was not comfortable there. I was uncomfortable in that environment. I could barely speak English. That is something that, imagine you go there and you cannot communicate with people, you don’t know anybody there, and I don’t know, I was really not in the place I wanted to be, and I didn’t deal well with it.

“I never give up on anything, and I just gave up, I didn’t fight my fight there. So that was what I was ashamed of, because that doesn’t represent me and that’s not what I want to show. But it looks like I’m catching up right now.”

Letourneau rebounded from her TUF setback to win four straight fights, the last three of which were contested inside the Octagon. In a curious slice of irony, Letourneau actually bested Jessica Rakoczy — the woman who knocked Modafferi out of the TUF 18 tournament — for her strawweight debut, then upset highly-touted prospect Maryna Moroz at UFC Fight Night 74.

The win over Moroz vaulted Letourneau’s name into the top-10 of the UFC’s media-generated rankings and ultimately paved the way for her shot at Jedrzejczyk, though she couldn’t help but notice the tepid reaction the announcement received.

“I saw that, especially when they started to talk about it before they officially announced it,” Letourneau said.

“I just stopped reading it, because most of the people I see who are writing this stuff, they don’t know anything about my career. Some people didn’t even see my last fight. So people talk (about me being an) easy (opponent), they have no clue who I’ve fought, saying I have a record of 8-3. Do you know who I’ve fought?

“Even when I got signed by the UFC,” Letourneau continued, “I saw so many comments saying like, ‘this girl is nothing, she doesn’t know how to fight, she lost a fight to get into the (TUF) house.’ And look where I’m at today. So it just gives me an extra reason to train twice as hard and prove them wrong.”

Letourneau’s résumé is indeed intriguing when given a closer look. The 32-year-old’s only losses have come against top-five ranked fighters Gadelha, Alexis Davis, and Sarah Kaufman — the latter two of whom are bantamweights, and the former two fights of which were lost in split decisions.

So when Letourneau says she believes she belongs, she means it. And she’ll hope to prove it by beating Jedrzejczyk at her own game on the biggest stage in UFC history.

“I’m always looking at the stand-up. That’s the thing I like to do,” Letourneau said. “So everybody has holes in their game, whatever you do. And I’m looking at holes in her stand-up, of course, because that’s my game also.”

Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s reign atop the strawweight division has been bloody, to say the least. The Polish striking phenom made former foes Carla Esparza and Jessica Penne look like victims ripped straight out of a horror flick, battering their faces with a dizzying array of precision strikes. But Jedrzejczyk’s next challenger, Canadian veteran Valerie Letourneau, isn’t afraid of the challenge that awaits on Nov. 15 at UFC 193.

“I’m not impressed,” Letourneau said Tuesday on The MMA Hour. “I like [Jedrzejczyk’s] style, I like her as a fighter. Like I said in other interviews, I was looking at her more as a fan. If my memory is good, I think even when she fought (in the UFC) at first, I wasn’t fighting at 115. I was not even looking at her like a future opponent.

“So, I’m not impressed because I fought such tough girls in my career. I’m never going to go in there scared or anything. I’m just doing my best, and I prepare myself the best that I can for my opponent. I have an awesome coach, I have every tool here, and I know I’m capable of doing anything.”

Letourneau isn’t the challenger many expected to face Jedrzejczyk next. That honor goes Claudia Gadelha, the No. 1 ranked contender who was promised a shot at the belt after dispatching Jessica Aguilar at UFC 190. But a lingering hand injury to Gadelha and the UFC’s desire to pair Jedrzejczyk alongside Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 necessitated a search for a new opponent, and Letourneau fit the bill.

It’s an unexpected turn of events for the former bantamweight who just two years ago faltered in her first opportunity in the big show.

Back in 2013, Letourneau fell victim to a first-round submission at the hands of Roxanne Modafferi in the opening round of The Ultimate Fighter 18. The season marked the first time women were ever featured on the UFC’s flagship series, and Letourneau was forced to return to the regional circuit for one more fight after failing to make it onto the show proper.

“I had to get over it right after, because I knew that fight doesn’t represent me as a fighter at all,” Letourneau said. “To lose against Roxanne, (there’s) no shame in that because she’s a fighter who I really respect and I’ve been watching her for a long time.

“It’s just the way I fought there. I almost gave up before the fight. I didn’t feel like I wanted to be there. I was not comfortable there. I was uncomfortable in that environment. I could barely speak English. That is something that, imagine you go there and you cannot communicate with people, you don’t know anybody there, and I don’t know, I was really not in the place I wanted to be, and I didn’t deal well with it.

“I never give up on anything, and I just gave up, I didn’t fight my fight there. So that was what I was ashamed of, because that doesn’t represent me and that’s not what I want to show. But it looks like I’m catching up right now.”

Letourneau rebounded from her TUF setback to win four straight fights, the last three of which were contested inside the Octagon. In a curious slice of irony, Letourneau actually bested Jessica Rakoczy — the woman who knocked Modafferi out of the TUF 18 tournament — for her strawweight debut, then upset highly-touted prospect Maryna Moroz at UFC Fight Night 74.

The win over Moroz vaulted Letourneau’s name into the top-10 of the UFC’s media-generated rankings and ultimately paved the way for her shot at Jedrzejczyk, though she couldn’t help but notice the tepid reaction the announcement received.

“I saw that, especially when they started to talk about it before they officially announced it,” Letourneau said.

“I just stopped reading it, because most of the people I see who are writing this stuff, they don’t know anything about my career. Some people didn’t even see my last fight. So people talk (about me being an) easy (opponent), they have no clue who I’ve fought, saying I have a record of 8-3. Do you know who I’ve fought?

“Even when I got signed by the UFC,” Letourneau continued, “I saw so many comments saying like, ‘this girl is nothing, she doesn’t know how to fight, she lost a fight to get into the (TUF) house.’ And look where I’m at today. So it just gives me an extra reason to train twice as hard and prove them wrong.”

Letourneau’s résumé is indeed intriguing when given a closer look. The 32-year-old’s only losses have come against top-five ranked fighters Gadelha, Alexis Davis, and Sarah Kaufman — the latter two of whom are bantamweights, and the former two fights of which were lost in split decisions.

So when Letourneau says she believes she belongs, she means it. And she’ll hope to prove it by beating Jedrzejczyk at her own game on the biggest stage in UFC history.

“I’m always looking at the stand-up. That’s the thing I like to do,” Letourneau said. “So everybody has holes in their game, whatever you do. And I’m looking at holes in her stand-up, of course, because that’s my game also.”