If you’ve never seen Joanna Jedrzejczyk fight before, let me just say this: It is a marvel.
Not just because of her striking, which is so crisp and precise and thrown with such ferocity that you’re often left wondering how her appendages stay attached to her body (earlier in her UFC career, Jedrzejczyk actually broke her right hand mid-fight on two separate occasions), but because of her stubborn persistence. She is the Rafael Nadal or Russell Westbrook of her sport—the harder a fight gets, the more cornered and unpredictable Joanna becomes. When you think she’s about to throw a punch, she catches you with an elbow. When you’re anticipating an elbow, she sends a front kick your way. When you’ve got her right where you want her, primed and ready for the kill, she suddenly becomes the predator.
“There are so many talented fighters. And then there are fighters who must work like butchers. They are champions because they work hard every day. I believe I have a little bit of talent, because I learn very quickly, but I’m like the butcher. I must work my ass off every day. I had to work my way to the championship, and I still must work to defend the title.”
The 30-year-old Jedrzejczyk was born amidst the Revolutions of 1989, into a post-Communist Poland—“a great time in Poland,” she recalled over coffee when we met up in Fort Lauderdale. Her parents owned a small grocery store and would wake up at two o’clock in the morning every day to prep their shelves with fresh meats and produce. Sometimes they would work 20 hours a day. During Christmas, Joanna would dress up as a tiny Santa Claus and pass out sweets to the customers.
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