Joanna Jedrzejczyk may have an 0-2 record against the current strawweight champion, but she believes there’s still no comparison between her and the rest of the division.
“You can see the other female strawweights fighting and compare me to them. Come on,” Jedrzejczyk said at the UFC 223 post-fight press conference. “They cannot compare themselves to me. They cannot. They are all really jealous and talking too much all the time. I’m telling them, ‘Bow down, bow down, I’m the queen.’”
Jedrzejczyk dropped a competitive five-round decision to Rose Namajunas in their rematch at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Saturday night. It was quite a difference from their first meeting at UFC 217, which Namajunas finished inside of a round in one of 2017’s biggest upsets.
“I’m very proud of myself. I’m in good mood,” Jedrzejczyk said. “Not like last time at the Garden. When I heard Bruce Buffer saying the numbers how the judges scored the card, I expected I was going to win the decision. When I heard the difference, I was like, ‘Ok we’ve got the win easy.’ It was really big surprise, and the numbers don’t lie.”
Jedrzejczyk is referencing the FightMetric statistics, which show the Poland native holding a 145-to-105 advantage in significant strikes. While Jedrzejczyk was more effective with leg kicks, the ex-champ wore a lot more visible damage at the conclusion of the fight. Nonetheless, the American Top Team representative felt she was the stronger athlete as the bout progressed.
“We thought the second round was super close. More kicks from me. I felt great. You could see me. She gassed out from the third round and I was more than ready to go with every round,” Jedrzejczyk said. “I could fight 10 more rounds. At the end, every break I was on my feet ready to go. If I knew they were scoring the cards like this — I didn’t leave the fight in judges’ hands — but I felt I could do more even. I felt I was winning the fight.”
Prior to back-to-back losses against Namajunas, Jedrzejczyk began her career with 14 consecutive victories, including eight triumphs under the UFC banner. Her five successful 115-pound title defenses are second most among women in UFC history, behind only Ronda Rousey, who had six. Despite the progression of Namajunas, Jedrzejczyk doesn’t see anyone approaching her or Rousey in that category anytime soon.
“I feel like this fight was so close. People were asking if I was going to give the rematch if I won the fight. I was the champ for a reason for a long time,” she said. “There is not a female fighter yet that’s going to tie Ronda Rousey’s record or my record.”