I first saw Joanna Jędrzejczyk compete late at night on December 13th 2014. Stipe Miocic would fight Junior Dos Santos, in his return fight after a brutal KO loss to Cain Velasquez. Joanna Champion, as she would become known, fought Claudia Gadelha on the under card of that fight, in a title eliminator for the women’s straw weight championship, which had been fought for the very first time only the day before.
Carla Esparza was the inaugural champion, and in a strange turn of events some 8 years later is the champ once again. It is shocking to me that it has been 8 years since Joanna fought, and with the announcement of her retirement, I’m starting to feel a little old. I’m critical of fighters, it’s part of my job as an analyst and as a coach – but like everyone else, when push comes to shove I watch a fight because I want to be entertained and I want to in some cases, be moved.
Joanna Jędrzejczyk was able to do both of those things. While Ronda Rousey was hogging the spot light, Joanna was fighting much stronger opposition in far gnarlier fights. She defended her title five times, and though she was technically the second flyweight champion, Carla’s failure to ever defend the title and Joanna’s subsequent success really helped cement her as the first true women’s strawweight champion in the minds of the audience.
While Ronda was known for her quick finishes, Joanna was known for her punishing beat downs. She actually won most of her fights by decision, but it’s easy to forget that when so many of her fights were out and out blood baths. Her title run is to this day the greatest in women’s MMA. While it’s hard to argue Amanda Nunez’ record as far as name value, Joanna’s streak was made up of great fight after great fight. After Rose Namajunas finally bested her, we saw Joanna go from unbeatable champion, so a battle hardened warrior, as every fight she competed in from then on was an out and out war.
Unfortunately since losing her title, Joanna has lost the majority of her fights, this is less because of her ability and more because her attempts at winning new titles saw her compete against the toughest opposition of her career. A rematch with Thug Rose, her first MMA bout against fellow Thai Boxer, Valentina Shevchenko, who she was never able to beat in amateur muay thai competition – to Weili Zhang.
Her first fight with Weili Zhang is probably the greatest fight in WMMA history. An all out war, with constant back and forth action and by the end, it really wasn’t clear who should have been declared the winner. While a Zhang win was fair, the fight was close enough to warrant a rematch. This time though Zhang left very little doubt, KOing Joanna in the second round. Joanna announced her retirement after that.
When Joanna was Queen, WMMA was still in it’s infancy. The level of competition hasn’t dramatically improved, but women had only been in the UFC for a few years. After just about every fight there were at least a few fans complaining and insisting that the UFC just scrap the women’s divisions. Today, WMMA is accepted as a part of the sport and a part of the UFC – and that likely wouldn’t have happened with out Joanna proving that women could have entertaining fights.
Joanna’s reign is the perhaps the most significant in the sports history, she dominated the deepest division in WMMA, and only faltered against future all time greats. It’s sad to see her go, but at the same time it’s easy to understand why it might be time for her to call it a career. She isn’t getting any younger and while she’s by no means a fossil, she has stayed in title contention since first losing the belt and has never managed to win it back, but on her best days made it controversial.
I doubt I’ll ever forget Dos Santos vs Miocic. It wasn’t an especially great card, but it sticks out in my mind now as it’s almost like a time capsule. The shadow of Cain Velasquez loomed over the heavyweight division, and we didn’t yet know that he would go from the potential best ever, to the sports greatest ‘what if’. It was my first time watching Joanna Jędrzejczyk, though I had no idea I was watching a legend in the making.
How much a sport can change in 8 years. It feels like it was only yesterday, yet also it feels like a life time ago.
