UFC women’s strawweight contender Joanna Jedrzejczyk says she is still planning on moving back up to the flyweight division in the future.
Jedrzejczyk is set to take on UFC women’s strawweight champion Weili Zhang at UFC 248 in March in Las Vegas. Jedrzejczyk will be looking to reclaim the title which she held between 2015 and 2017 before dropping it in shocking fashion to Rose Namajunas at UFC 217.
After losing to Namajunas in the rematch and then beating Tecia Torres to get back into the win column, Jedrzejczyk moved up to flyweight and fight Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant title at UFC 231. Jedrzejczyk lost a decision in that fight and then moved back down to strawweight, where she beat Michelle Waterson at UFC Tampa to earn a title shot against Zhang.
Though Jedrzejczyk’s sole focus right now is getting her belt back, she is keeping an eye to the future. Speaking to reporters at UFC 245 recently, Jedrzejczyk admitted that she will likely move back up to 125lbs in the future.
“Yeah, maybe in the future. Before my fight with Valentina Shevchenko, I didn’t have enough time to prepare for this fight for a different division, you know? I had only six weeks to prepare and face one of the greatest,” Jedrzejczyk said (via MMANews.com).
Though Jedrzejczyk lost a clear-cut unanimous decision to Shevchenko, she arguably did better against the champ than most of her other opponents have. So a rematch definitely could be something that makes sense in the future if Jedrzejczyk keeps winning and Shevchenko is still the champ.
But regardless of who holds the title at 125lbs, at some point look for Jedrzejczyk to move back up in weight after she outgrows 115lbs.
“Definitely. That’s the plan for the future,” Jedrzejczyk said.
Do you think Joanna Jedrzejczyk is making the right call here by planning a future move back up to the UFC women’s flyweight division?