UFC: Joanna Jedrzejczyk ‘smarter now’, sees victory in a Rose Namajunas trilogy match-up
- ‘She’s the champ right now, so she’s holding the cards,’ admits former strawweight champ, who is 0-2 against American ‘Thug’
- ‘It’s all about having a better plan. I had a few fights with good opponents, there’s more videos to study Rose’s style,’ Jedrzejczyk insists
Former UFC strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk believes a trilogy fight with the division Rose Namajunas could be in the cards in the near future.
Namajunas returned to action in the main event of UFC 261 last month, claiming the strap for a second time with a first-round knockout of China’s Zhang Weili.
“There’s a possibility of me fighting Rose, but she’s the champ right now, so she’s holding the cards,” Jedrzejczyk told SCMP MMA. “Let’s see when she wants to fight next – that’s the most important thing. She deserves the time off. She became the champ for the second time and she deserves whatever she wants.”
The pair first met in late 2017, with Namajunas winning by first-round knockout to capture the strawweight title. They then had an immediate rematch in early 2018, which Namajunas won by split decision, but Jedrzejczyk remains confident she has the skills to defeat her rival.
“I put on a hell of a performance in our rematch,” she said. “I wasn’t able to compete at the highest level when we met for the first time at Madison Square Garden in 2017 because of the bad weight cut I had.
“Rose knocked me out and she won that fight clearly. But I don’t know, I put on such a long camp before that rematch. It was a long 12 weeks of hard training.