Jedrzejczyk: I want to retire before too long, and have kids

UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is 29. That is a prime age for a fighter, but life is about more than fighting. Life, too, is about life. The mean age of women at birth of first child in her native Poland is 26.7. Despite having a fight with Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 205, Joanna Champion is looking forward beyond Saturday night.

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,’ said Jedrzejczyk to Mike Bohn for 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, 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.

Jedrzejczyk used to fight at 125, but the UFC lacks a women’s flyweight division, so she cut hard, and is worried that the initial attempts caused her some degree of irreparable physical harm. For her last fight, with Claudia Gadelha, Jedrzejczyk secured the services of Perfecting Athletes which made a vast difference.

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,” she 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 going to be difficult to retire undefeated because MMA is a difficult sport. 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.

Those dreams include being known as one of the best ever. A win Saturday will put the undefeated champion’s successful title defenses at four, two short of the mark set by Ronda Rousey. And although Rousey returns at UFC 207 in December, ‘Rowdy’ has spoken repeatedly about winding her career down, so that record will not be broken anytime soon.