Fight Preview: Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs Michelle Waterson

Cover photo courtesy of Michelle Waterson on Instagram.

This weekend at UFC Tampa we will hopefully witness an exhilarating bout in the main event between “The Karate Hottie” Michelle Waterson and the former strawweight queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk. This fight will ultimately decide which woman will go on to face Weili Zhang in her first title defense since capturing UFC gold back in August. There’s no doubt that both of these women have a plethora of skills and experience they bring to the table, and each would present the newly crowned champion with their own unique challenges given the opportunity.

Michelle Waterson is a battle-tested veteran that has always been one of the most level-headed, dedicated, and hard-working women in the entirely stacked UFC women’s strawweight division. Michelle is absolutely a huge inspiration for working moms around the world, and she acknowledged that in an interview with the UFC where she stated, “I want to be the Mom Champ for myself, but I know that in doing that I will be showing my daughter what it is to go after your dreams. I’m a strong believer that our children learn the most through our actions.” We have seen Michelle face adversity and we’ve seen her rise from the ashes of defeat dating back to April of 2018 when she got back in the win column with a split decision victory against Cortney Casey. That fight saw Michelle get the better of not only the grappling exchanges, but her superior striking in my opinion purely outclassed Casey. Waterson’s next victim was another UFC veteran, Felice Herrig, who she also beat in a decision that was definitely unanimous. “The Karate Hottie” absolutely dominated that fight from start to finish utilizing her aggressive striking paired with a very disciplined and extremely successful grappling attack. Her most recent victory back in March was earned in a hard-fought war against the former title contender in Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Karolina came out initially looking to control the Octagon in the opening round of the fight, but per usual Waterson was able to maneuver the fight towards her skillset utilizing her brilliant striking and her judo which allowed her to score several takedowns. With Michelle continuing to completely dominate on the ground and in standup she took the decision unanimously upgrading her resume to three wins in a row against nothing but top tier opponents. If Waterson wins here against the former champ in Tampa it’s definitely difficult to say she needs to prove herself any further before testing her abilities in a title fight.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk is coming into this fight in a bit of a different situation especially since she hasn’t competed at strawweight since July of 2018 when she was able to outstrike Tecia Torres to win their bout via unanimous decision. Unfortunately, longest-reigning strawweight champion Jedrzejczyk has come up short in three of her last four bouts with the UFC. She initially lost her title back in November of 2017 when “Thug” Rose Namajunas snapped Joanna’s 15 fight win streak via KO in the first round. Joanna was very vocal about her horrendous weight cut leading up to that fight, and was granted an immediate rematch as a champion of her caliber should. The rematch against Rose in April of 2018 was a completely different fight, and we saw Rose go toe to toe with Joanna in a striking match sent from the MMA Gods themselves. Rose continuously utilized her left hook and saw the effects of her striking on Joanna’s face during the fifth round. Joanna’s eye was almost entirely shut and the rest of her face was bloody, but she was able to push through that adversity and make it to the end of the fight. Rose won again via unanimous decision which left Joanna as heartbroken as just about any other former champion we’ve seen face defeat. One thing we can all appreciate though was her extreme determination to return three months after this fight to defeat the incredibly tough UFC veteran in Tecia Torres. Joanna seemed eager to remind us that although she may have lost her championship status her career is still very far from over.

Her most recent bout in December of 2018 was her third straight title fight opposite of Valentina Schevchenko. These women had history after facing each other twice during a Muay Thai tournament in which Schevchenko bested Joanna both times they competed. This fight however was to crown the new flyweight queen in the UFC, after both women had the chance to hone-in and really master their individual skillsets. It’s no secret that Joanna has solidified an extremely loyal fan base, and definitely had the support of a lot of fans ahead of this flyweight title fight against Schevchenko. Joanna absolutely surprised me by going to a decision with the newly crowned flyweight champion, which undoubtedly proved to me that there’s something to be discussed when it comes to Joanna’s massive weight cut at strawweight. We’ve already seen and heard some rumors of weight issues leading up to UFC Tampa, but Joanna took to social media immediately when these claims popped up to reassure her fans that she still has plenty of time to make the strawweight limit of 116 pounds. She’s never missed weight in the past, so let’s hope that this won’t be her first time after a longer than usual layoff.

Waterson made it abundantly clear that she is only interested in making her bid for strawweight gold, and she has no intention of competing against Joanna at catchweight if she comes in heavy at the weigh-ins on Friday morning. I mean do you blame her? Joanna is already the bigger girl considering that Waterson previously competed in other organizations as an atomweight at 105 pounds, but is forced to compete at 115 pounds because it’s the smallest weight class offered in the UFC. I’m not offering up any excuses in Michelle’s name, but I can understand not wanting to fight a naturally larger opponent at a heavier weight than what was initially planned. Patience can sometimes be a virtue though, so I’m definitely hoping these women still get to share the octagon in Tampa this weekend. I’m still extremely conflicted about who I’m picking mostly because these women both have the potential to come out on top, but something tells me that once I see them opposite of each other at the weigh in my mind will be instantaneously made up. Let’s just pray to the MMA gods that these women are able to make it to that octagon on Saturday night!