Former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is about as fierce a competitor as there is in the UFC today. But for the first time in her career, she’s coming off a humbling defeat.
Set to rematch “Thug” Rose Namajunas in this weekend’s UFC 223 co-main event, the Polish striking expert isn’t pleased with the world’s opinion that she was using her botched weight cut as an excuse for her title loss.
Now, ushered back into the spotlight ahead of this weekend’s title fight, Joanna thinks anyone calling her an excuse maker should be ashamed of themselves.
She said as much in a new pre-fight interview with MMANytt.
Check it out:
“Big shame on all of the fighters that said the weight cut was an excuse.”
“I know people who fans, they can say that because they don’t know anything about the weight cut, but man, sometimes I know people who can’t even drop one kilo in a week, but I had to drop 15-pounds.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore, but it’s a shame that some fighters said it was an excuse.
“Guys, I don’t wish you go through the weight cut that I had to go through before the first fight with Rose Namajunas.”
“I don’t care what people are saying, I know what I’m doing right and I’m taking care of everything. There’s not going to be any single mistake made before the fight.
“That’s the thing, I’m Polish you know, Polish women can do everything.
“I like to cook and I like to prepare my meals. I’m preparing all my meals and since the last two or three weeks I’ve been working with a new nutritionist, but I don’t want to talk about that.
“Someone is helping me with that, but you know, for the first five or six weeks I was taking care of that. I dropped my weight to the very low limit and I’m excited about that.
“I’ve been in this business for 14 or 15 years, I’ve got lots of knowledge.
“There was loads of drama last camp and loads of things I didn’t need, but like I said, life is different right now.
“After the fight I said I would keep my eyes open and that I would expect more from myself and people around me.”
Here’s the full interview:
