The UFC Tampa brought us several interesting fights, but the biggest one was between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Michelle Waterson. The Polish fighter won after a unanimous decision and a match in which she had everything under her control. Some were saying that such a powerful performance in the UFC strawweight category hasn’t been seen in a long time.
The precise analysts stated that Jedrzejczyk landed 180 significant strikes and that it is the third most in this category since the data has been collected. Waterson came out swollen and heavily damaged from this fight, but managed to wait for the end on her feet.
The scoreboards said 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46 for the former champion.
And that difference would have been even higher if it weren’t for Jedrzejczyk’s leg injury. She broke her foot in the second round, and that gave her some trouble, but not enough to open a chance to Waterson to endanger her rival.
Following the fight, she was excited and wanted from Dana White to set her up a title fight with Zhang Weili.
“Hell, yeah,” Jedrzejczyk said. “Who is the real queen? Bow down, bow down. I’m the real queen. [UFC president] Dana [White], call you in a minute.”
Waterson was inferior right from the start, and her takedown attempts didn’t prove to be efficient at all. From nine attempts she took down the opponent only once did she managed to fulfil her intention. That was in the late part of the third round, when she even had a chance to make choke on her rival, but couldn’t use it.
Early on, Jedrzejczyk broke her nose with a ferocious elbow, and during the entire match, her stand up was way better than the American’s. Low kicks and massive strikes with her right hook were damaging for the Karate Hottie.
According to her words, the reason why she lost this fight lies solely in her impatience, as she often rushed into bad situations while trying to take down her rival.
“I think the biggest thing was I was impatient,” Waterson said. “We had 25 minutes to get it done. I was comfortable on the outside, and I should have stayed there a little bit longer for her to give me the takedown.”
It is her first loss after three consecutive victories, and a step back in her UFC career. With this win, Waterson would no doubt be the No.1 on the list of Weili’s potential challengers. That will no be Jedrzejczyk, who truth to be told, deserved the shot to regain her belt.
She was one of the most dominant champions in her division before losing to Rose Namajaunas. She was defeated back then twice against Namajunas, who not only beat her in the first fight but also the rematch. However, a lot has happened since, as Jessica Andrade defeated Namajunas, and lost the title against the Chinese fighter.
We should hear soon what are Dana White’s plans, and according to several experts, the fight between Jedrzejczyk and Weili could be even arranged somewhere around New Year.
