Before Joanna Jedrzejczyk goes for her second title in as many divisions this Saturday night (Dec. 8, 2018) at UFC 231 against Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant Flyweight strap, let’s take a look back to see where “Joanna Champion” was born.
Back in 2015, Joanna found herself face-to-face with women’s Strawwweight champion Carla Esparza in only her third UFC fight ever in Dallas, Texas. Most expected a highly-competitive fight, as “Cookie Monster” was an established wrestler, on a five-fight win streak and coming off a championship win over Rose Namajunas.
While Esparza did manage to score a few takedowns, it was all pretty much Joanna when it was standing, as the polish-born fighter tagged her foe at will. And once she started stuffing the take-down attempts, things starting to get bad in a hurry for Carla, who escaped getting finished in round one.
Round two was more of the same until Joanna eventually put on a crazy combination to force a referee stoppage and earn her first-ever UFC world title. Now, she will look to become the 125-pound champion when she faces off against her rival Valentina Shevchenko.
To see who else is fighting at UFC 231: ‘Holloway vs Ortega’ click here.