UFC's least popular champ may be most like Ronda Rousey
Prior to and throughout the broadcast of "The Ultimate Fighter: Season 20," UFC president Dana White boasted about how good the field was because all of the best strawweights in the world were in the house.
Fairly quickly, though, that proved to be untrue.
Paige Van Zant, now ranked No. 7, wasn’t in the house. Only 20 at the time of the filming, she was too young to appear on the show. Claudia Gadelha, now ranked No. 2, also wasn’t there, because she was concerned about the frequent weight cuts she’d have to make.
And most significantly, Joanna Jedrzejczyk wasn’t involved.
She never questioned her ability, and believed all she lacked was an opportunity. When she got it, her faith in herself was justified.
The former Muay Thai world champion has proven conclusively in three fights in the UFC that she’s far more than a one-dimensional striker. She defeated Juliana Lima in her UFC debut, bested Gadelha in December and then routed Carla Esparza to take the title at UFC 185 in March.
And as Jedrzejczyk becomes more familiar to UFC fans, it’s becoming more apparent that she shares plenty of similarities to women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
Jedrzejczyk is not an actress, hasn’t appeared in a swimsuit on the cover of any magazines and isn’t anything approaching a social media phenomenon.
But the UFC strawweight champion is more like Rousey than many would guess.
Jedrzejczyk defends her title for the first time on Saturday in Berlin, Germany, against Jessica Penne in the main event of a live streaming card on UFC Fight Pass.
Like Rousey, Jedrzejczyk is undefeated. She’s also not only extraordinarily confident in her abilities, but never satisfied in what she’s accomplished.
“People, just the average person, can not understand what it takes to be the best in the world at something,” Jedrzejczyk said. “The work you put in, the sacrifices you have to make, there’s no way to explain it to someone so that they can understand. I’m a competitor and I’m [obsessed] with being the best at what I do. So I know that in order to do that, I need to constantly evolve and constantly improve.”
As her Muay Thai championships would suggest, her striking is her most significant asset. But just as Rousey’s judo is her best asset, it’s not all there is to her game.
Jedrzejczyk was the underdog against Gadelha, an exceptional grappler, in December, and then again when she faced Esparza. Esparza is a wrestler and the conventional wisdom was that Esparza would neutralize her striking, take Jedrzejczyk down and somehow find a way to defeat her on the ground.
But Esparza wasn’t able to take Jedrzejczyk down, and Jedrzejczyk picked her apart before stopping her in the second in a stunningly one-sided performance.
“She made one mistake, and it was a big one,” Jedrzejczyk said of Esparza. “She had only one plan for the fight. I was ready for her wrestling. I heard about her wrestling and I prepared for it. I’m more than just a striker. My defensive wrestling is very good. She tried to take me down, but she couldn’t.”
And that, in a nutshell, was the fight. Jedrzejczyk has exceptionally fast hands and is an accurate puncher, and she was able to pummel Esparza in a way that no one had come close to doing before.
Oddsmakers seem to be catching on. Jedrzejczyk is more than an 8-to-1 favorite to defeat Penne and retain her belt, but the last thing Jedrzejczyk wants to discuss are the odds.
She understands what it’s like to be the underdog. When she faced Esparza, she knew she had to raise her game several levels in order to defeat the champion. And she believes that Penne will be better than she’s ever been for the same reasons.
“Part of being a great champion is understanding that you have a target on your back and that every opponent is going to bring their best effort,” she said. “But this is what I like, because it is motivation for me to push myself, and to get better.”
If Penne is training for the fighter Jedrzejczyk was in March when she defeated Esparza, the challenger is going to be in for a surprise, Jedrzejczyk said. The champion said she’s better now than she was then.
She is a natural athlete and excelled in basketball and volleyball when she was a child. But it was her intensity that made her a champion, not just her physical gifts.
“The day of the fight is the glory day,” Jedrzejczyk said. “All the work has been put in and that’s when you are able to show what you have done and how much better you have gotten. That’s the easy part. The hard part is day-after-day going to the gym and doing the work, and just living the lifestyle of a champion.
“I believe in God. I’m a Catholic and I know God has given me a great gift with this talent. But I have to work hard to take advantage of it. I try to make the right choice so every day, I’m better than I was the day before. There’s no other way to do it.”
While Jedrzejczyk may never star in an action flick near you, she’s probably more like Rousey than any other fighter.
Rousey started off great, and tops herself each time. She wins in just over a minute and then goes out and her next two fights take 30 seconds combined.
And Jedrzejczyk appears to have the drive to keep topping herself every time out.
“There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears that go into this,” she said. “It’s not easy by any means. But the reward at the end is what makes it worth it.”
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