White would ‘love’ Jedrzejczyk vs. Kowalkiewicz in Poland

Poland’s Karolina Kowalkiewicz defeated Rose Namajunas via Split Decision in the Fight of the Night at UFC 201 Saturday night. As always, talk immediately turned to who is next.

Kowalkiewicz pushed her record to a perfect 10-0, 3-0 in the UFC. Her last loss was as an amateur, to UFC featherweight champion and fellow Pole Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Being a smart fighter, she made clear to the fans what she wants next.

I’m happy I won,” said Kowalkiewicz. “Now I want a fight with Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

https://twitter.com/MMARising/status/759600198456778752

Jedrzejczyk too wants the fight, as does UFC president Dana White. Although it’s is not officially booked, the only real question seems to be where it will take place.

“It’s the one that makes sense,” said White to Megan Olivi during a post-fight interview on Fox Sports 1, as transcribed by Karim Zidan for BE. “But we’ve got to get back to the office and figure out what to do. I’d love to do that fight in Poland.”

White also noted that Jedrzejczyk had advocated for the UFC to sign Kowalkiewicz.

“The funny thing is that Joanna Jedrzejczyk wanted us to sign her and said, ‘I want to prove to everybody in Poland that I’m the best,'” said White. “And now she has worked her way up to a possible title shot with her, so it’s very interesting.”

Both Kowalkiewicz and Jedrzejczyk have said in the past week that they want the fight to take place at Madison Square Garden. White said that was a possibility, but reiterated that Poland was his first choice.

So we have the who, what, and why, with the when and where to be decided, presumably soon.