4. Jedrzejczyk’s heartbreaker
Despite having her face battered and swollen to the point at which she was barely recognizable, I thought Jedrzejczyk did enough to get the nod and regain the title against Zhang. She definitely took the brunt of the damage, but I thought she had the more consistent performance over the course of the fight and took three of the five rounds.
In the end, though, Jedrzejczyk came out on the wrong end of a UFC title fight for the fourth consecutive time. The loss to Weili followed a flyweight title loss to Valentina Shevchenko and a pair of defeats against Rose Namajunas. But unlike Romero, this doesn’t feel like a last-chance scenario for the Polish fighter.
Jedrzejczyk is going to be hurting physically, emotionally and ego-wise for a little bit considering her level of confidence coming into the bout. But she has proven to be one of the most mentally strong fighters in the game since joining the UFC. She’s able to move on from tough spots and rise up again, but perhaps this one will be different.
It’s been many years in the fight game for Jedrzejczyk and she took a lot of punishment against Weili. Only time will tell if this was the closest she’ll ever get to reclaiming a UFC belt.
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