Joanna Jędrzejczyk is a former Polish professional mixed martial artist and Muay Thai kickboxer. She was born on August 18, 1987, and is considered to be one the best female mixed martial artists of all time.
Jędrzejczyk is a former UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion and holds several records in the organization. She has the most successful strawweight title defences and the most straight wins in the weight class. She is also the first Polish champion and the first female European champion.
Jędrzejczyk began training at the age of 16. After learning Muay Thai, she went on to participate in national and European championships. For ten years, Jędrzejczyk participated in Muay Thai and kickboxing, winning more than 60 matches.
Her amateur Muay Thai achievements include four IFMA European championships, six IFMA global medals, and a record of 37 wins and 3 defeats. Jędrzejczyk won five global championships during the course of her professional career, including the WKN Global Championship, WBKF Championship, WKF European Championship, WMC Championship, and more.
She also held other championship titles with organisations like the World Kickboxing Network and the World Muaythai Council.
Jędrzejczyk switched to MMA in May 2012 and won all nine of her bouts without losing. She defeated Sylwia Juskiewicz in her mixed martial arts professional debut in May 2012 at SFT – MMA Fight Night Diva SPA. She won the match via a unanimous decision.
At Battle of Moscow 12 in June 2013, she competed against Julia Berezikova who was the top-ranked Russian WMMA flyweight at the time.
In July 2014, Jędrzejczyk signed a contract with the UFC. In July 2014 at UFC on Fox, she made her professional debut when competing as a strawweight against Juliana Lima. She ended up winning the match via a unanimous decision victory.
In March 2015 at UFC 185, Jędrzejczyk competed against Carla Esparza for the UFC Strawweight Championship. She prevailed in the one-sided contest by way of second-round TKO. Jędrzejczyk subsequently received a Performance of the Night bonus.
She maintained her perfect record over the next two years with five successful championship defences.
The first championship defence for Jędrzejczyk took place in June 2015 in Berlin, Germany. After a barrage of punches and a knee against the cage in the third round, she defeated Jessica Penne to successfully defend the championship. Later, Jędrzejczyk had surgery to fix a broken thumb he had sustained in the altercation.
At the beginning of 2016, the UFC revealed that Jędrzejczyk will serve as one of the coaches for the TUF 23 with former rival Cláudia Gadelha. In July 2016, they squared off again at the TUF 23 Finale in Las Vegas, Nevada’s MGM Grand Garden Arena. She ended up winning the match via unanimous decision victory.
Jędrzejczyk competed against Rose Namajunas in November 2017 at UFC 217. Her sixth championship defence took place at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jędrzejczyk suffered her first professional defeat in a mixed martial arts match by KO (punches) in the first round.
In April 2018 at UFC 223, Namajunas and Jędrzejczyk engaged in a championship rematch. She was defeated by unanimous decision.
On September 20, 2018, it was revealed that Jędrzejczyk will be making a comeback to the flyweight division to compete against Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship at UFC 231. Jędrzejczyk was defeated in the match via unanimous decision.
In October 2019, Jędrzejczyk competed against Michelle Waterson at UFC on ESPN+ 19. Despite having told the UFC that she may not be able to meet the strawweight limit, Jędrzejczyk weighed in at 115.5 pounds. She ended up winning the match via unanimous decision.
In March 2020 at UFC 248, Jędrzejczyk competed against Zhang Weili for the UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship. She ended up losing the match by a narrow margin.
In June 2022, Jędrzejczyk and Zhang squared off again at UFC 275. Jędrzejczyk was defeated after suffering a second-round knockout with a spinning backfist. Many commentators hailed the bout as the best in women’s MMA history.
Jędrzejczyk declared her retirement from mixed martial arts in her interview after the match. She stated: “It’s been 20 years. I’m turning 35 this year. I want to be a mom. I want to be a businesswoman. I’ve been training two decades, more than half of my life. I appreciate you all. I love you guys.”
Jędrzejczyk has been working out at American Top Team in Florida, since her camp for UFC 205.
Phil Daru is her strength and conditioning coach. Jędrzejczyk trained in the gi and earned a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 2021.
Jędrzejczyk was in a relationship with former Polish football star Przemysaw Buta. But she confirmed that she is not engaged to Buta anymore in a 2019 interview.
