LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Joanna Jedrzejczyk[/autotag] was on the cusp of ending her retirement from MMA this year before an injury provided perspective.
Jedrzejczyk (16-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC), a former longtime UFC strawweight champion, brought an end to her esteemed combat sports career in June 2022 when she announced her retirement following a knockout loss to Zhang Weili at UFC 275. It was a difficult decision for her, and one many questioned whether it would stick.
The Polish striking specialist brought doubts that she would stay away from active competition when she told MMA Junkie in October that she was struggling to come to grips with hanging up the gloves, and hinted a comeback could be on the horizon. She even jumped into training at the intensity in which she would prepare for a fight, but then a lingering shoulder issue resurfaced.
“I was back to American Top Team at the beginning of this year, at the end of January (and) I wanted to see if I was able to be back and train really hard, and I was,” Jedrzejczyk told MMA Junkie. “I was training really hard for two, three times a day for 13 weeks. Everyone was asking if I was coming back and coming out of retirement. Honestly, I wanted to be back. I wanted to give myself one more chance. But then my (shoulder injury) happened again, it came back with double the power it used to hurt before.
“I got really sad. Very emotional. But I got calmness in my heart and soul. It’s what I was looking for, for eight months after I retired. I feel like I’m in the spot where I’m not chasing this anymore. That’s a good thing. Sad, difficult, but I feel calm. This is what I was missing the first few months after I retired.”
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Jedrzejczyk, 35, was out of action for more than two years before the loss to Zhang at UFC 276. She chose not to compete during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but came back with every intention to avenge her 2020 Fight of the Year loss to Zhang in the rematch, then go on to a title fight at 115 pounds.
The shoulder injury first flared up while preparing for that fight, and although she was able to contain the severity of it, the side effects have persisted. She finally opted to pull the trigger on surgery, which she said was the most significant procedure of a nearly 20-year combat sports career.
“It was bothering me for a while,” Jedrzejczyk said. “The first issues I started having was before my fight with Weili Zhang, so it’s been more than three years. I was very smart and had good physical therapy and in the offseason, I always take good care of my body, but we couldn’t this time. I had to go through the surgery and it was quite a big things, so in total I need seven to nine months total to recover.”
Jedrzejczyk knows the fire for competition will never leave her completely. That’s simply in her DNA, and what she thinks everyone who reaches her level of success has in them. She’s better equipped to handle that reality than ever before, though, and thinks there are plenty of other things out there to keep her satisfied going forward.
“I want to fight ADCC,” Jedrzejczyk said. “I’m doing racing. I want to play golf and tennis. The thing is, this is such a difficult sport. You have to dedicate so much. We were born as fighters, because we’re all fighting for our first breath when we are born. But being a fighter is such a difficult thing, and we need this adrenaline. We need this adrenaline running in our blood. We’re always looking for some challenges and we love chasing each other. That’s the thing. I have so many passions outside of MMA, but you can’t compare it to being a fighter.”