Joanna Jedrzejczyk has sent a warning to Carla Esparza following the latter’s win over Rose Namajunas at UFC 274.
Next month at UFC 275, Joanna Jedrzejczyk will run it back with Zhang Weili as they square off in a number one contender match-up at strawweight. The victor is expected to go on and challenge for the belt later this year, and after UFC 274, we now know that Carla Esparza is the champion they’d be facing.
Back in March 2015, Jedrzejczyk managed to defeat Esparza and take her championship – beginning a run that saw her successfully defend the strap five times.
Now, ahead of the Zhang rematch, Jedrzejczyk has expressed her excitement at the possibility of taking on Carla again.
“I was very surprised,” Jedrzejczyk said. “Because sometimes you have to do more, you have to do much more to beat the champion but you know I can speak for myself. I can’t speak for Rose but I don’t know what happened. When you feel that the first round wasn’t good and the second [round], you have to do something. Sometimes you have to risk to get the victory even paying a big price. I don’t know what happened. Until the end of the fight, I thought that Rose got it but no and here we go.
“Like Carla, I really thought she was going to look better and I was like this girl deserved the title shot, she had so many [fights] on her win streak but for me, she looked the same as seven years ago when we fought for the belt in Dallas. History likes to make a circle and [I’m] soon to be champ.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting
Who would you back to come out with the win in a rematch between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Carla Esparza? Can the Polish sensation get past Zhang Weili?