Remember all the handwringing over Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s weight cut a few months ago? That was real. Very real. It may have been dismissed in the moment as sensationalism, another molehill for the MMA media to turn into a mountain, but the reality was in late September, as the clock ticked down on Jedrzejczyk’s top-contender bout against Michelle Waterson at UFC Tampa, the biggest question both the UFC and Jedrzejczyk’s team faced was whether the former strawweight champion would make it to her Oct. 12 date at all. And that concern started long before fight week.



It’s no secret that Jedrzejczyk has always struggled with her cut down to 115 pounds. Two years after her knockout loss to Rose Namajunas in a 2017 title defense, she still — to some degree, at least — attributes her performance to a nightmarish war she waged with the scale before UFC 217, one that forced her to shed 15 pounds in less than 14 hours. Regardless of whether you buy...