5 reasons why Joanna Jedrzejczyk was right to announce her retirement

#4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk was never likely to regain her strawweight title

After her loss this weekend, Joanna Jedrzejczyk was never likely to regain the UFC strawweight title

Perhaps more than any other female fighter in UFC history, Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s persona and reputation was always built around the fact that she held UFC gold, namely the strawweight title.

The Polish fighter famously captured the title from Carla Esparza in March 2015, and went onto hold it for over two years before eventually losing it to Rose Namajunas in November 2017.

However, while that time period doesn’t seem all that long on the surface, Jedrzejczyk was able to put together five successful title defenses during it, and even gained the nickname ‘Joanna Champion’ due to her being so intrinsically linked with the gold.

Ever since she lost her title to Namajunas, Jedrzejczyk has naturally been looking to win it back. But after falling short against ‘Thug Rose’ in a rematch and coming out on the wrong end of a decision against Weili Zhang in 2020, it’s seemed less and less likely that she’d be able to achieve her goal.

Had Jedrzejczyk beaten Zhang in their rematch this weekend, then she’d have likely been given another title shot in a rematch with Esparza, a fight she’d have been favored to win. However, following her loss to ‘Magnum’, had she stuck around, she’d have been further from a title shot than ever before.

With that in mind, given that her ultimate goal would now have to be considered out of reach, what is there to stick around for? In that sense, it’s better that she simply step away.

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#3. She has fought most of the opponents available to her already

Joanna Jedrzejczyk has fought a who's who of 115lbers during her career with the UFC

One option for former UFC champions looking to continue to fight is to take so-called “money fights,” preferably with other big-name fighters in or around their weight class.

Of course, this only works if a fighter has plenty of fresh matchups, something that can often be tricky for a longtime former champion like Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Put simply, the Polish superstar just doesn’t have that many viable opponents available to her.

Of the UFC’s current ranked strawweights, Jedrzejczyk has already fought the majority of the big names, the likes of Carla Esparza, Rose Namajunas, Weili Zhang, Jessica Andrade, Tecia Torres and Michelle Waterson.

Sure, she hasn’t fought opponents like Mackenzie Dern and Marina Rodriguez yet, but the truth is that fights with them simply wouldn’t class as big ones and would probably look more like the UFC attempting to make a prospect’s name off the back of a win over a legend.

Essentially, Jedrzejczyk has fought a who’s who of 115lbers in the UFC since her arrival there in 2014. So, given that there’s a dearth of potential opponents for her now, she’s better to walk away altogether.