Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s main goal is becoming the UFC women’s strawweight champion again. And that’s what she plans on doing after this weekend.
Jedrzejczyk has lost three of her last four bouts. However, all three of those defeats came in title fights to Rose Namajunas and Valentina Shevchenko. She will now look to get back to winning ways at UFC Tampa this Saturday when she faces Michelle Waterson.
Although she wanted a title fight for her next outing, with the strawweight belt changing hands so frequently this year, she decided to take a fight with Waterson instead. But that’s not to say she’s underestimating “The Karate Hottie” who is on a three-fight winning streak. However, the Pole still expects to come away with the victory.
“Yeah, she showed up better and better with every fight,” Jedrzejczyk told The Body Lock’s John Hyon Ko of Waterson. “This is what I’m expecting from her on Saturday. But she hasn’t faced someone like me who was the champ for a while and someone on my level.
“She’s a great fighter, a good striker, she switches positions, she has good body hip throw, good on the ground. Definitely, she’s an all-round fighter and I’m happy to fight that good fighter.”
With a win on Saturday, there is no question as to who Jedrzejczyk wants to fight next — current strawweight queen Weili Zhang.
“Of course, after this fight I go for my belt,” she added. “I will win, I will be successful on Saturday. After that, I will go for my title.”
A native of China, Zhang has notably had problems trying to get back into the United States. She recently posted that she was denied a visa.
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If that remains the case, Jedrzejczyk is more than open to continuing the trend of defending strawweight champions fighting on their opponent’s home turf.
“That’s great,” Jedrzejczyk said of challenging Zhang for the title in Poland. “There’s the beautiful National Stadium in Warsaw with an open roof. You can close the roof but 60,000 seats. Let’s make it happen.”
You can listen to the full interview below:
