UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is defending her title against Karolina Kowalkiewiecz this weekend at UFC 205.
While she is no doubt prepared for the fight, something else that she is planning for is motherhood, something she says will take her away from the cage sooner than you think.
“I had the thought in my head a year ago, two years ago I was like, ‘I want to fight two more years,’ and then this year I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll fight to next year or next few years and be done with that,'” Jedrzejczyk told MMAjunkie. “I like to be healthy person. I like to be focused on my things. Now I’m trying to be the best athlete ever. I left my family, my fiance, my friends. I left my everything in Poland, but I’m trying to be the best in the world, and I’m proving that every single day for myself. There are no excuses. When (I retire) I’m going to be the perfect wife or perfect mother. I want to be the same, (giving) 100 percent, I know I’m not retiring in two months or beginning of the next year because then I will want to come back and have a fight with someone who is important. My goal is to make my dreams come true, my goals come true, and be undefeated. Fight for the next few fights and then see what’s going to happen. That’s my goal.”
One thing the fighter will not be missing is the weight cut, something that gave the fighter problems in her first couple of bouts in the UFC. She's also advocated the idea of UFC starting a 125 pound women's division.
“My first five fights in the UFC, the weight cut – and I don’t complain about the weight cut because it’s my job – I’m enjoying this, but I broke my hand once; the second time I broke it, and I think it was because of the weight cut,” Jedrzejczyk said. “What if I break my shin like Anderson Silva did? I don’t want this. I want to be healthy. But now since I’ve been working with Perfecting Athletes, it’s been amazing. I feel great, the weight cuts are easy, and I’m healthy. It’s amazing how good I felt before the last fight with Claudia Gadelha. We’re all figuring out how to cut the weight in the right way. We cannot think about just a single fight. We have to think about the future. I want to be a wife, and I want to be a mother for my kids. I want to be an athlete for the next few years. I want to be a healthy person in the future. We cannot think just about now. We must stay healthy. There is a way to cut weight very easy and feel great. Before I broke my hand twice ,and it was probably because of the wrong weight cut. Last time I felt amazing.”
The champion does have one goal to accomplish before retirement, which is to remain undefeated for the rest of her career.
“It’s going to be difficult to retire undefeated because MMA is a difficult sport,” Jedrzejczyk said. “But every fight someone must win, and someone must lose the fight. I’m trying to be focused, calm, humble. I’m trying to be hard on myself, challenge myself and learn new stuff every day. I want to make my dreams into a life.”
UFC 205 takes place on Saturday, November 12 from Madison Square Garden In New York, New York with Eddie Alvarez and Conor McGregor headlining.
