This May, in the co-main event of UFC 211, dominant UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will attempt to make the fifth defense of her title against dangerous Brazilian contender Jessica Andrade. While Jedrzejczyk’s victory against an opponent of Andrade’s caliber is far from guaranteed, she is already looking ahead to her next challenge as UFC strawweight queen.
On a recent episode of The MMA Hour, Jedrzejczyk explained that, if she beats Andrade, she expects her next challenger to be “The Karate Hottie” Michelle Waterson. For this to happen, Waterson will first have to defeat the ever-dangerous Rose Namajunas, who she’s scheduled to fight this April.
Jedrzejczyk’s words, via MMAFighting.com:
“I’m impressed with her. Let’s see. She has a good fight coming up with Rose, so we will see. We will see. I think that she might be my next challenger after I beat Jessica.”
Jedrzejczyk then acknowledged the possibility of a Namajunas win, and explained that she doesn’t believe the young fighter is ready for a title shot. She also revealed that she has a bit of an issue with the way Namajunas has recently comported herself.
“You know what’s weird? Like, I met Rose. I have so much respect for this girl,” Jedrzejczyk said. “I think she’s one of the most talented strawweights in the UFC, but she needs more experience. But, I think there is something wrong with her head.”
“She got her chance to fight the Polish chick [Karolina Kowalkiewicz],” she continued. “But she lost to her and now she says ‘oh, I want to fight Joanna, I want to beat her, I know how to beat her.’ Come on. Get your chance, beat the best, and become a challenger. It’s so crazy.”
“The thing is, like, I met her in Denver. We shake hands, we spoke to each other. And two days after, I heard that she was like, ‘oh, I want to beat Joanna.’ Shut up. You had your chance to beat Karolina and Carla Esparza before, and some others, but you just lost. Come on. Work hard, get your ass to the gym, put on better fights, and you’re going to get this title shot.”
“But be honest. If you don’t like me, don’t shake my hand and don’t talk to me,” Jedrzejczyk concluded. “Don’t talk behind my back. I’m kind of a straight person and this is what makes me mad. I’m good with that, but I think Michelle Waterson will [beat] Rose.”
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This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/20/2017.