It has been confirmed that former UFC champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will be inducted into the 2024 UFC Hall Of Fame.
The self proclaimed 'Boogeywomen' reigned supreme at the very top of the UFC Strawweight division for many years and will now rightfully take her place in the Hall Of Fame.
After signing with the UFC as a 5-0-0 prospect, Jedrzejczyk made her promotional debut at UFC on FOX 12 against Juliana Lima in July 2014 and got her UFC career off to winning ways with a unanimous decision victory.
She then faced Claudia Gadelha 5 months later in an extremely close contest, with Jedrzejczyk edging it on two of the three judges' scorecards and managed to edge a split decision. This result would be the start of one of the most intriguing rivalries of Jedrzejczyk’s career but would not surface again until 2 years later.
The win against Gadelha led to Joanna’s first shot at UFC gold, against Carla Esparza at UFC 185. Without doubt, the best she had looked since signing with the promotion, looking levels above the champion in the striking department and regularly negating Esparza’s takedown attempts throughout the bout. Cranking the pressure up, Jedrzejczyk cranked the pressure up and once she had Esparza backed up against the fence, she started unloading and became the first woman to stop Esparza with strikes.
In her first title defence, Jedrzejczyk once again showed that she was one of the best strikers in the Strawweight division with a third round stoppage against Jessica Penne. She then defended her belt once more against Valerie Letourneau at UFC 193.
The reigning champion then filled one of the positions of the two coaches on Season 22 of The Ultimate Fighter, and coaching the other team - Claudia Gadelha. From their first bout, there had been no love lost between the two and things escalated when the pair had to be in the same space on a regular basis.
The pair met once more at The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale and after a slow start from the champion, which saw her drop the opening two rounds. The champion had to dig deep to rally late, finishing the bout in dominating fashion and even scored a 10-8 round on all judges' scorecards in the fourth to cement the win.The scorecards read 48-45,48-46,48-46.
Her next defence came at UFC 205 against fellow Polish native, and unbeaten prospect, Karolina Kowalkiewicz. The two delivered an extremely entertaining contest but again, Jedrzejczyk navigated her way through the five rounds in a more superior fashion and claimed yet another unanimous decision win. She then defended the belt for the fifth time at UFC 211 against Jessica Andrade.
UFC 217 played home to the, then, 30-year-old squaring off against ‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas. ‘Thug’ stunned all in attendance at Madison Square Garden and the rest of the Strawweight division, when she knocked out Jedrzejczyk in just over three minutes to be crowned the new Strawweight champion.
Due to the incredible reign Jedrzejczyk had as the Strawweight queen, she was granted an immediate rematch against Namajunas, which came at UFC 223. Unfortunately for the former champion, she would come up short against ‘Thug’ Rose once again, with the champion defending her title by way of unanimous decision.
After the back to back losses, Jedrzejczyk looked to rebuild with a win against Tecia Torres and then decided to move up to Flyweight to challenge Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant Flyweight championship. Once again Jedrzejczyk found herself in the losing column by way of unanimous decision.
Another move back to Strawweight and a win against Michelle Waterson-Gomez and it was yet another title shot, this time, against Weili Zhang. The five round affair is largely regarded as the greatest ever women’s Strawweight fight. The two women left everything in the cage, with Jedrzejczyk’s forehead swelling to a size not seen before in the octagon. It was to be Weili’s night as ‘Magnum’ took the split decision.
In her final bout, the two met once more and Jedrzejczyk bowed out on the back of a second round knockout defeat.
Jedrzejczyk ended her UFC tenure with a number of accolades including being the first Female European UFC Champion, first Polish UFC Champion and holds the most title wins in UFC Strawweight history.
