Jedrzejczyk: See me, I’m human, and not afraid of losing

“I am not afraid; I was born to do this.”
-Joan of Arc

Greatness in combat sports comes from great rivalry. Muhammad Ali needed Joe Frazier to fully shock and amaze ya. Arturo Gatti needed Micky Ward. Jake LaMotta needed Sugar Ray Robinson. And great rivalry means both fighters can and do lose.

Conor McGregor lost to Nate Diaz, came back to win, and achieved far greater fame. By contrast, Ronda Rousey lost twice, and that was the end of her career. Joanna Jedrzejczyk lost her title to Rose Namajunas and gets a rematch on Saturday. Joanna ‘Violence’ appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and talked about losing.

I was afraid of that, said Jedrzejczyk, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. And I didn’t know enough, but now I feel like, just deal with it, and I’m not afraid of losing. It’s not going to happen, but I’m not afraid of losing. I want people to see me as a human, that I was not only born for being at the top. I was born for that, but not only for this — I’m real, you can touch me. I’m real, I’m not created.”

I want to dedicate this fight to people who have failed, and they don’t have the strength to rise. I want to show to them that even if you fell from the highest, you can rise, you can be back. Take you life in your hands, man. Go through every day and rise. It’s life. It’s life, that’s the thing.

I have a new challenge and I’m very happy. There is no pressure on me. I’m never nervous about fight week, big fights, because the hard work is done so many weeks, days before the fight. I’m enjoying this, and I look at things differently. I used to say that I want to be undefeated, I wanted to retire undefeated. I don’t care about this anymore. I saw that I love my life more, and fighting is just part of my life. People wanted me to, like, be sad, cry, and hide after I lost. No.

Guys, you have a job, I have a job to do. It’s part of my life. Soon I will stop fighting and I will do something else. I will be a mother, I will have some businesses, I will do some other stuff, and it’s just part of my life. I’m 100 percent in, but let’s not get crazy. That I lost, it’s not the end of the world. For other people it could be, but not for me.

The last fight made me more into it. I want to fight even longer. I love it. I think everything happens for a reason.

I have even more respect for Rose than I had after the last press conference on the phone last week. Someone asked her if she believes me that it was the weight cut, she said yes. Thank you for that, for understanding. We all are fighters. And they are weak, the people who are [criticizing] this — they are weak, because I didn’t give up. I took my job and I did my job. I was on weight on the day of the weigh-ins. I took this fight, even [when people were saying] I should go to the hospital, take an IV, or maybe even not fight. But I wanted to do this, for the people who came to the show and who purchased the pay-per-view.

I wanted to give the people what they came for and what they were looking for, but it changed me. I pay more attention [now] to everything and every single person in my team. But I’m very happy that I’m surrounded by real people. I feel free.

I don’t want to take anything from Rose, but this is what Mikey Brown said, a legend: It’s easy to win a short fight. It’s nothing bad — people want to see KOs, submissions, short fights, explosive — but going through big wars, that’s the thing. What do you remember? My [favorite] fight is Robbie Lawler, Rory MacDonald. But that’s thing, I want to have a chance to show to people: I’m here for a reason, and I’m back for a reason.

And I don’t know, I have so much respect for Rose, it’s going to be interesting if she can do this again, because I’m going to be 100 percent. She won the battle, but she’s not going to win the war. All the respect. Let’s have the best fight of this year, female fight of the year. What about this, Rose?

Joanna Jedrzejczyk rematches strawweight champion Rose Namajunas in the co-main event of UFC 223, on April 7, 2018, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.