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UFC bantamweight 'Suga' Sean O’Malley has weighed in on Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s decision to retire from the sport of MMA. Jedrzejczyk, a former UFC women’s strawweight champion, is widely regarded as a bona fide MMA legend.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk hadn’t competed as frequently over the past few years. Having last fought in March 2020, she returned to the octagon at this past Saturday’s UFC 275 event. Jedrzejczyk faced fellow former strawweight champion Zhang Weili in a rematch of their all-time-classic fight that’d transpired in 2020.
Jedrzejczyk ended up losing the rematch via second-round KO and then announced her retirement during the post-fight octagon interview. In an edition of the Timbo Sugarshow podcast, Sean O’Malley opined that Jedrzejczyk shouldn’t have made such an important decision immediately after a knockout loss. O’Malley stated:
“I guess she said in the fighter meeting – If she lost, she was gonna retire. Like, it’s such a, I feel like, not a good time to make that decision after getting knocked out.”
He added:
“But she said that she wants to be an entrepreneur, like a businesswoman, and do other things. Yeah, once you f**king, once you’ve made money, you can venture off into those other avenues. She’s probably like, ‘F**k this.’ It’s probably a good thing UFC fighters don’t get paid a lot of money until a long time.”
O’Malley opined that if UFC fighters get paid a considerable amount of money for their first three or four fights, they might start questioning themselves as to why they’re competing as fighters.
‘Suga’ and his coach Tim Welch notably referenced the challenges fighters face in their lives – including injuries, being sore most of the time, sparring sessions, fights, etc. Furthermore, they insinuated that the tremendous financial success that Jedrzejczyk has experienced as a businesswoman in recent years likely contributed to her decision to retire from MMA.
Watch Sean O’Malley discuss Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s retirement at the 13:30-minute mark in the video below:
Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s emotional retirement speech at UFC 275
Following her KO defeat at UFC 275, Joanna Jedrzejczyk spoke to Daniel Cormier and proceeded to reveal that she’s bidding adieu to her MMA career. Jedrzejczyk said:
“I’m retired, guys. I love you so much. Thank you for the support. UFC, Dana [White]. So sorry I let you down, man.” She added, “It’s been 20 years. I’m turning 35 this year. I wanna be a mom. I wanna be a businesswoman.”
The Polish MMA stalwart emphasized that she’d trained hard for the fight and lauded Zhang for her incredible KO win. Moreover, Jedrzejczyk thanked her coaches, friends, family, and the UFC's employees for everything they’ve done.
Watch Jedrzejczyk’s speech in the video below:
