Jedrzejczyk: The numbers tell the truth
Joanna Jedrzejczyk: “It was a really big surprise and the numbers don’t lie: 142 to 84, and landed 132 from me, 83 from Rose. That’s the answer. That’s the answer.”
The first time they fought, at UFC 217 on November 4, 2017, Joanna Jedrzejczyk was outstruck by Rose Namajunas by 15 to 5, before falling at 3:03 of Round 1. On Starday night at UFC 223, Joanna ‘Violence’ outstruck ‘Thug’ Rose handily, landing 145 of 356 thrown vs 105 of 301 thrown.
The judges, however, saw the fight for Namajunas, via Unanimous Decision with identical scores. (49-46, 49-46, 49-46). However, while the final scores were identical, each judge scored the fight differently on a round by round basis, a certain sign of how close the fight was.
#UFC223 official scorecard: Rose Namajunas def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk via Unanimous Decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) pic.twitter.com/IZiCVK83ie
— Mike Fridley (@mikefridley) April 8, 2018
#UFC223 official scorecard: Rose Namajunas def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk via Unanimous Decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) pic.twitter.com/IZiCVK83ie
— Mike Fridley (@mikefridley) April 8, 2018
Most experienced observers as well, although by no means all, did see it for Namajunas. However, at the post-fight press conference, a confident, positive Jedrzejczyk said she won the fight, and pointed to the numbers.
When I heard Bruce Buffer saying the numbers of how the judges scored the card, I expected that I was going to win by split decision, said Jedrzejczyk, as transcribed by Ryan Harkness for MMA Mania. But when I heard the difference I was like ‘Okay, we’ve got this win, easy.’ Even say my coaches. So it was a really big surprise and the numbers don’t lie: 142 to 84, and landed 132 from me, 83 from Rose. That’s the answer. That’s the answer.
We thought the second round was super close, but more kicks from me, she said. And I felt great, you could see that she gassed out in the third round and I was more than ready to go with every round, I could fight 10 more rounds. At the end of every break I was on my feet ready to go … I felt like I was winning the fight. And I’m not complaining that I lost or not. I’m really different fighter, I’ve done so much for myself and the sport. I feel great.
There has been talk that Jedrzejczyk would up to the UFC’s new flyweight division, but Jedrzejczyk is in no rush.
I was competing at 125 and it was easy, she said. But I put on great work with my diet this camp, for the first 5 weeks I dropped my weight to 128 so I was pretty light the whole camp. After that I started working with George Lockhart but I used my knowledge as well. But we put on great work, so we’ll see.
I feel great in the 115 division … but we’ll see. We’ll see where we go after the vacation and after we talk to Dana and the matchmakers.
Stats via FightMetric.