Joanna Jedrzejczyk will only return to strawweight for a title shot

After years of nearly killing herself to make 115 pounds, former Strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk made her 125-pound debut at UFC 231 last night (Sat., Dec. 8, 2018) to less than stellar results. Valentina Shevchenko won the women’s vacant Flyweight title by decision, physically bullying the less muscular Jedrzejczyk and hitting her with the harder shots through their five-round fight (watch the highlights here).

At the post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White said he’d like to see Joanna return to the 115-pound division she terrorized for years. But, Jedrzejczyk was very clear when talking to the media following her defeat: she’d only drop back down to Strawweight for a title shot.

”Yes, definitely I will stay in 125 division,” Jedrzejczyk told FOX Sports’ Megan Olivi. “But, like I said before during the fight week and during the media that I want to go and challenge myself in the Strawweight division for the belt.”

”I feel good in the Flyweight division,” she said at the post-fight press conference. “I see how my body reacted to the diet and a few more pounds. I was happy and in a good mood, I could do more. Definitely, it’s a good division for me.”

But, Jedrzejczyk spent just as much time talking about winning back her trawweight belt as she did on her new home at Flyweight.

”I definitely want to challenge myself and chase my other dream and go for the strawweight belt again. So I will wait for [Jessica] Andrade and Rose [Namajunas] to fight next year. Rose has only four months left to defend the belt, because otherwise she might lose the belt with no fight. That’s the thing. I was pretty busy champion, other champions are pretty busy, but if you don’t defend your title once a year, you’re losing the belt.”

”I must do this for myself, to put dot on it, I will drop one more time to the strawweight division,” she continued. “But you know, I’m not getting younger, I’m getting older. I’ve been in this business for 15 years so I want to take care of my body. Because this camp I realized how, because I was never complaining about the diet and weight cut. But, this camp I realized how it can impact your body, your brain, your performance being on such a strict diet for so many weeks, or the weight cut.”

”So I definitely want to protect my body, but the other stupid thing is I want to do this one more time,” Joanna finished. “That’s it. One more time. We always give second chance to ourselves, and I want to do this. Only title shot.”

With that, Joanna left the press conference ... but not before grabbing an entire pizza from the press buffet. Just another perk of sticking around in the 125-pound division.

For complete UFC 231: “Holloway vs. Ortega” results and play-by-play, click HERE!