Former UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk gets a shot to reclaim the title when she faces Rose Namajunas in the co-main event of UFC 223.
The former champion admits that a huge amount of weight had to be cut hours before the UFC 217 weigh-ins, which she believes is a huge factor in the title loss.
“Man, I felt so bad, I had to cut 15 pounds in 14 hours; I did it in 14 hours,” Jedrzejczyk said on The MMA Hour. “I think Perfecting Athletes couldn’t believe that I did that. I start my weight cut at 5 pm on Thursday and I was on weight five minutes before 11 am on Friday, so it was a miracle. I was praying to God for this miracle. And it happened. I took this mentally. I was crying, I was so weak but I believed it. I said to one of the Perfecting Athletes team, ‘Hey, it’s a shame for a champion to not make her weight’, and then I made it — a thing I couldn’t believe. After the weigh-ins, I had only fluids and I went to bed because I took just two 15-minute naps during the weight cut. The thing is, my legs got numb after I woke up. I said to my doctor, ‘Hey, my legs are numb’, and she said, ‘nothing to worry about, we’re going to hydrate you more’ and ‘you’re going to be fine’. But the next day, I felt the same and thought the most crazy things. I took the fight mentally. I wanted to go into the fight and push away all of the worries.”
Jedrzejczyk would part weights with Perfecting Athletes after the disastrous weight cut, which she claims was a mutual move.
One thing the former champion could’ve done to re-hydrate after the fight was to use an IV, but that could have led to the fight being canned.
“Like I said, I could’ve gone to the doctor and got an IV, but I was worried that they were going to cancel my fight. I couldn’t do that to my fans. I’m a real warrior. And if people want to believe they can believe. If not, I will prove them wrong. I’m still the champion,” says Jedrzejczyk.
UFC 223 takes place on Saturday, April 7 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York with Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
