Following her loss to Zhang Weili at UFC 275, Joanna Jedrzejczyk placed her gloves down in the center of the cage and announced that she would be stepping away from MMA competition. She had a lot to say in the cage about how she felt like she let people down and disappointed so many people, which we can chalk up to the emotions of the situation. Given how she was finished, Joanna probably felt like she didn't live up to the expectations she set for herself coming in, but also maybe felt like the fight didn't live up to the first because she got knocked out instead of going to decision. Now that all of that has worn off, I would think that Joanna doesn't believe that she actually let anyone down. I know that none of the fans feel that way. She is one of the greatest fighters in the history of women's MMA and just UFC history in general. She is one of the greatest champions that the UFC has ever seen. I think the influx of newer fans since the pandemic may not realize that Joanna was probably the face of women's MMA for a really nice window of time. If you're new to my retirement post format, we'll go through a quick rundown of her career, talk about her style, and then my favorite moment from her career.
Joanna started her MMA journey, at least professionally, in May of 2012. She would spend the first two years of her career bouncing around the European regional scene, reaching a record of 6-0 before the UFC came calling. She would make her UFC debut in July of 2014 and she would get a decision win over Juliana Lima. Her second fight would be a split decision victory over what became her biggest rival, Claudia Gadelha. In the early days of women in the UFC, this was enough for her to earn a title shot against the new champion (both the new champion at the time and the new champion in present day) Carla Esparza. Joanna would get the TKO victory late in the second round to become champion and would proceed to go on a fantastic run with it. She successfully defended her title 5 times with wins over Jessica Penne, Valerie Letourneau, Claudia Gadelha, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and Jessica Andrade. Unfortunately for her, this is where her reign of dominance would end as she would be shockingly knocked out in the first round of her next defense by Rose Namajunas at UFC 217 in November of 2017. She would lose the rematch as well, but that time it came via decision. From that point on, she struggled to ever really regain any type of footing and saw largely mixed results. She would win her next fight over Tecia Torres and would receive a flyweight title shot against Valentina Shevchenko. You might be able to guess how that fight went considering that Valentina is still champion, but Joanna held her own. She moved back to strawweight and notched a win over Michelle Waterson in a main event in 2019, which parlayed her back into a title shot against Zhang Weili. That was the fight that was the fight of the year in 2020 that saw Weili retain her title in a split decision. We hadn't seen Joanna in the two years since that fight until a few weeks ago. It isn't uncommon in this sport to see our favorites and the legends go out the way Joanna did, but it doesn't make it any less sad either. To see Joanna belly down on the canvas and have the fight stopped because she was unable to get up despite the fact that Weili wasn't even near her was a tough visual, but it did seem like Joanna was doing relatively ok a few minutes later whenever the decision was read and she was being interviewed by DC.
Stylistically, Joanna was extremely advanced for her time. If you're a new fan, this may have been the first or second time you had ever seen Joanna fight in real time and it may not be extremely clear why she is talked about the way she is by the fans who have been around much longer. Joanna's technical kick boxing ability was definitely not the norm when she came into the sport. Women's MMA is evolving very quickly and over the time that Joanna has been in the UFC we have seen it take massive strides. When Joanna first started, women's MMA was much more of a new thing, especially to the mainstream. It was so new that there was no generation of women who trained their whole lives with the goal of becoming MMA fighters. In these early days, it was a lot of women who came to MMA from other sports, whether it was kick boxing, professional BJJ, judo, or something else. In that era, Joanna was just more advanced in the striking than anyone else we were seeing and it really stood out. Her quickness, hand speed, and power, combined with that technical striking acumen, gave her almost a sense of invincibility. While I am not a woman, I have to imagine seeing someone who had skills that were right there with the most talented male fighters of the time was such an inspiration to so many young girls and I imagine that a lot of younger fighters would reference Joanna as one of their MMA role models. Joanna also had a style outside of the cage, which made her extremely popular with the fans. Again, this is something a newer fan may not fully comprehend due to the differences in the times, but when Joanna was coming through, winning, and defending her title, the press conferences were actually important. People actually watched the press conferences and what was said actually mattered. Today, most people don't even watch the press conference and the things said there rarely even make it into the news cycle. Honestly, a lot of journalists don't even cover the press conferences anymore. I don't even know if I could tell you the last one I ever watched. Because the trash talk part of the MMA game is sort of a thing of the past, at least in the way it used to be, the press conferences really don't serve much of a purpose anymore. In the prime of Joanna's career, trash talk was extremely important and the press conferences was the place to do it with the most eyes and coverage. Joanna is one of the best trash talkers in the history of the sport and brought that element to women's MMA when a lot of the fighters weren't really doing that. Her rivalry and subsequent season of The Ultimate Fighter with Claudia Gadelha were huge for both her own popularity and legitimizing women's MMA in the eyes of the fanbase at the time. As great as Joanna was as an individual, her impact on the sport as a whole will continue to be felt for years to come.
The last thing I like to do with these is just to talk about my favorite moment from a fighters career. My hope is that this blog catches on and we start getting a lot of feedback on these posts and when a fighter retires they may stumble upon this and see everyone in the comments discussing their favorite moment from their career. MMA fans don't always have the best reputation and can be unforgiving at times, but I think it would be cool for a fighter to see how their hard work was a positive memory in the lives of so many people. I hate when I do these and my answer for a fighter is a fight that they lost. I think I did the same thing for Paul Daley. However, I don't know how I could pick anything other than Joanna vs Zhang I. That fight was clearly the fight of the year and very clearly the best fight in the history of women's MMA. It could have very well been the best fight of all time. I'm not here to debate that, but what I will say is that I'm not sure if I've ever had more fun watching a fight in my years of watching the sport. That fight almost doesn't seem real to look back on now. It seems like something out of a movie or something. For whatever it is worth, I thought Joanna won the fight, but that's just me. I don't think it is possible for me to hear Joanna's name and to think of anything else before that fight. Even though she had so many great performances and such a long title run, that fight is something that will be shown and talked about for decades. When they're telling the story of MMA 50 years from now, that fight will be one of the points on the timeline.
I think to finish this out, I'll just say a few things. First, I think this is ultimately good for Joanna. I'm just catching up on The MMA Hour since I was on vacation all of last week, but I think New York Ric hit the nail on the head. He was talking about how recently, Joanna has been talking increasingly about things that aren't fighting. She did that one interview before this fight was announced and she kept talking about the money and what the contract needed to be. She talks about all of these other things that she's doing and businesses that she's running and I don't think there has ever been a better time for her to walk away. She seems to have herself in a great spot going forward financially and if she doesn't have to fight, there's really no reason to continue unless she just really wanted to. Given how long she was away, it just seems like she is ready for the next chapter in her life and I don't blame her. The fight game is unforgiving and beats down basically everyone who comes through it. She came in and now she is on the other side and still has most of her health in order. She's done virtually everything someone can accomplish in this sport. She's headlined shows, won titles, defended it, and had huge fights. She's had a hall of fame career as an individual and had a hall of fame fight. There is simply nothing more for her to prove or accomplish.
If for some reason Joanna or her team were to come across this, thank you for all of the years of dedication to us fans. Thanks for all of the highs, lows, and in between. We will all have our memories and will do our best so that future generations know who Joanna Jedrzejczyk was and what she represented. Best of luck to whatever she has planned for the rest of her life and we can’t wait to see her whenever she comes to an event or at least at the Hall of Fame inductions. Congratulations on a great career.
Normally at the end, I welcome thoughts and comments, but for these, I ask that everyone leaves their favorite Joanna fight or moment in the comment. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
Comments
Post a Comment