When Joanna Jedrzejczyk was on top of the world as UFC women’s strawweight champion, her attitude and demeanor were two attributes that everybody seemed to love most about her.
From the intense stare downs at weigh-ins to the intimidating trash talk that Jedrzejczyk would unleash in the days leading up to the fight, the Polish strawweight was well known for mentally battering her opponents long before stepping into the cage together.
Following two straight losses to Rose Namajunas, Jedrzejczyk has been met with a much different reaction to her approach to fights in recent months as she’s been called cocky and overconfident.
Add to that, Jedrzejczyk has felt some sort of simmering animosity with her upcoming opponent Tecia Torres, who used to train at the same gym as the former champion before relocating to Colorado for her last few fights.
Whatever the reason might be, Jedrzejczyk isn’t going to apologize for who she is as a fighter or as a person but she will definitely fire back at her detractors who are trying to define her based on two recent losses.
“They’re all saying that I’m a bad person but they don’t know me,” Jedrzejczyk told MMAWeekly. “It’s easy to point the finger at someone and point at people. I don’t care about this anymore. They can say that I’m the worst but they’re just jealous. All of them are just jealous. They’re just jealous.”
Jedrzejczyk, who had teased a move to 125 pounds prior to her first loss to Namajunas last year, says that her ultimate goal now is regaining the belt at strawweight before she goes anywhere else.
Her mission to recapture the gold starts on Saturday night when Jedrzejczyk competes in her first non-title bout since 2014 as she looks to vanquish Torres and get back into the title race.
No matter what anybody has to say about her — including Torres — Jedrzejczyk isn’t going to allow a setback to stop her from going after her ultimate goal, which is becoming UFC champion once again.
“People are listening to them ‘oh she’s a bad person’. Guys my legacy is big and I will make this even bigger with my next fight and my next fight,” Jedrzejczyk said. “They are just jealous but like I said I want to show to people you cannot wait for your dreams in life. You must work very hard to reach your goals, to reach your dreams.
“[Tecia] can say whatever she wants. She’s not going to be at my level. She’s not going to approach what I did in my life. That’s the point.”
Jedrzejczyk faces Torres on the main card at UFC on FOX 30 from Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET on FOX
