Can Karolina Kowalkiewicz turn things around?
If you traveled back in time to the summer of 2016, when [autotag]Karolina Kowalkiewicz[/autotag] won a split decision over Rose Namajunas at UFC 201 to improve to 10-0 and earn a strawweight title, and you told fans back then that Kowalkiewicz would lose five of her next seven fights and maybe be on the chopping block for her next fight, they’d scoff and say that was as likely as the Houston Astros cheating to win the World Series and then MLB allowing them to get away with it.
But truth is stranger than fiction, and here we are. Kowalkiewicz simply never looked the same since then-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk toyed with her at UFC 205 and won across-the-board 49-46 scores. That started a 2-5 stretch which includes three straight defeats, and while they’ve been to high-quality foes such as Claudia Gadelha, Jessica Andrade and Michelle Waterson, eventually, you simply have to start winning.
And it doesn’t get easier from here, as she meets [autotag]Yan Xiaonan[/autotag] (11-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC), who is 4-0 in the UFC and only needs this type of high-quality win over a competitor with Kowalkieicz’s name value to get to the next level.
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