https://youtu.be/gjW1s64Xksc
Poland’s Joanna Jedrzejczyk is one of the most dominant champions in the UFC today. Since winning the strawweight title from inaugural champion Carla Esparza in early 2015, she has defended it four times, and in a few short weeks, she’ll attempt to make it five. Her next defense will pit her against aggressive Brazilian finisher Jessica Andrade, in the co-main event of the absurdly stacked UFC 211.
In advance of Jedrzejczyk’s extremely dangerous fifth attempted defense, watch the video above to relive her transformation from unknown prospect to dominant UFC champion.
Jedrzejczyk’s first defense pitted her against the veteran Jessica Penne. Despite Penne’s big-stage experience, Jedrzejczyk was able to badly bloody her, and put her away with strikes in the third round.
Jedrzejczyk’s second defense saw her take on Canada’s Valerie Letourneau, who recently signed with Bellator. Though Letourneau put up a surprisingly good fight in this contest, Jedrzejczyk ultimately walked away with a sound unanimous decision win.
Next up, Jedrzejczyk rematched her biggest rival, and the clear-cut number-two strawweight Claudia Gadelha. Though Gadelha won the early rounds of this fight, Jedrzejczyk was able to capture the momentum in the fight’s second half, piecing her foe up to capture another unanimous decision.
The champ’s fourth and most recent fight occurred at the landmark UFC 205 last November. In this fight, she took on fellow undefeated Polish fighter Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and though she was dropped late in the fight, she managed to defend her belt with an otherwise dominant unanimous decision win.
Andrade will enter her title fight with the dominant Jedrzejczyk on a three-fight streak, having not lost since she dropped from bantamweight to strawweight. In her last three fights, she has defeated Jessica Penne, Joanne Calderwood, and most recently, former Invicta champ Angela Hill.
Do you think Joanna Jedrzejczyk will successfully defend her title against Jessica Andrade at UFC 211?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/30/2017.