Joanna Jędrzejczyk

Muay Thai career

Jędrzejczyk competed in Muay Thai for 10 years, winning 70 matches and five amateur world championships and four amateur European championships with IFMA as well as the WKN World Championship, J Girls Championship, WBKF Championship, WKF European Championship, and WMC Championship. She has a professional kickboxing record of 27 wins and 2 losses and an amateur kickboxing record of 37 wins and 3 losses.

Early career

Joanna Jędrzejczyk made her professional debut in mixed martial arts (MMA) on May 19, 2012, at SFT - MMA Fight Night Diva SPA against Sylwia Juskiewicz, winning via unanimous decision. On December 8, 2012, at MFC 5 she defeated Lily Kazak by submission via a rear-naked choke. On June 20, 2013, at Battle of Moscow 12 she defeated the #1 Russian WMMA fighter Julia Berezikova via unanimous decision.

By July 2013, Jędrzejczyk was the #7 women's flyweight fighter in the world by Fight Matrix.

On June 7, 2014, at Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 69 she defeated Rosi Sexton via knockout in the second round.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Jędrzejczyk officially signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in July 2014. She made her promotional debut, now fighting as a strawweight, on July 26, 2014, at UFC on Fox: Lawler vs. Brown against Juliana Lima. She won the fight via unanimous decision.

Jędrzejczyk next faced undefeated strawweight top contender Cláudia Gadelha on December 13, 2014, at UFC on Fox 13. She won the fight via split decision. The judges' decision was met with much controversy as the majority of MMA media scored the bout in favor of Gadelha.

Strawweight Champion

Jędrzejczyk faced Carla Esparza for the UFC Strawweight Championship on March 14, 2015, at UFC 185. Jędrzejczyk won the one-sided bout via TKO in the second round, becoming the first UFC title-holder from Poland and first female European UFC champion. Subsequently, Jędrzejczyk won a Performance of the Night bonus.

Jędrzejczyk made her first title defense against Jessica Penne on June 20, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 69. She successfully defended the title against Penne, defeating her in the third round via TKO following a flurry of punches and a knee against the cage. Both participants were awarded Fight of the Night honors. Jędrzejczyk later underwent surgery to repair a fractured thumb incurred during the fight.

In her second title defense, Jędrzejczyk faced Valérie Létourneau on November 15, 2015, in the co-main event at UFC 193. She won the fight by unanimous decision to retain her title. The 220 significant strikes landed by Jędrzejczyk were the most ever the most ever in a championship fight. 70 leg kicks were landed by Jędrzejczyk, the most in UFC history. The previous record was 68, set by Carlos Condit against Nick Diaz at UFC 143.

In early 2016, the UFC announced that Jędrzejczyk would be one of the coaches, opposite former opponent Cláudia Gadelha on The Ultimate Fighter 23. A rematch between the two took place on July 8, 2016, at The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale. She won the fight via unanimous decision. Both participants were awarded Fight of the Night for their performance.

Jędrzejczyk successfully defended her title for the 4th consecutive time by defeating Karolina Kowalkiewicz by unanimous decision on November 12, 2016, at UFC 205.

Jędrzejczyk is expected to face Jessica Andrade on May 13, 2017, at UFC 211 in Dallas, Texas.

Fighting style and coaches

A decorated kickboxer, Jędrzejczyk is known for precise and calculated striking. She employs a sprawl-and-brawl strategy in MMA fighting, While standing with opponents, she constantly varies between high punches and body shots, also utilizing knees, elbows, and high front kicks. She also uses a flurry of strikes just to confuse the opponent before landing a solid strike, much akin to Chuck Liddell. SportsJoe.ie MMA journalist Darragh Murphy summed up her fighting style: "Her technique has the right combination of sublimity and relentlessness, expressing one's typically violent art through beauty, the perfect storm."

While Jędrzejczyk is soft spoken and has a quirky and endearing personality to fans, she often employs the use of bullying and trash-talk against her opponents before fights, and her fights have been known to be violent and bloody. UFC president Dana White has praised her stating "She is so bad ass... pound-for-pound [she is the] best female fighter on Earth... Her killer instinct is ridiculous." MMA media have called Jędrzejczyk "must-see TV."

Jędrzejczyk has been praised for her elite level sprawl-and-brawl strategy implementation. Fightland striking analyst Jack Slack has written "She's being likened to Chuck Liddell, and that is a pretty solid way to describe her...while she has an undoubtedly better technical striking game than Liddell". BloodyElbow.com striking analyst Connor Ruebusch has written "Distance, angles, and damage. These are the key ingredients of successful takedown defense, and the elements that make Joanna Jędrzejczyk and José Aldo such masterful strikers" The Washington Post striking analyst Patrick Wyman has written "Sound fundamentals fuel the best fighters in the world, and nobody has better mastered the bread and butter of footwork and distance management than Aldo and Jedrzejczyk". Foxsports.com striking analyst Jason Parillo has stated "Joanna's MMA boxing is remarkable. It's second to none".

During her Muay Thai career, Jędrzejczyk was trained by kickboxers Ernesto Hoost and Paul Slowinski. Upon making the transition to MMA, she began training with Pawel Derlacz, Szymon Bonkowski.

Starting with her UFC 205 training camp, she began training at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.

Personal Life

Joanna Jędrzejczyk was born in Olsztyn, Poland. She has a twin sister, Katarzyna, and one older sister, Ewa. She is engaged to Polish native Przemysław Buta. She discovered Muay Thai as a teenager, while taking up fitness, which eventually led her to competitions.

Mixed martial arts

Kickboxing

Muay Thai