Joanna Jedrzejczyk battered Valerie Letourneau to the tune of 220 significant strikes Sunday afternoon at UFC 193, but despite picking up the win, she couldn't escape unscathed.
For the second time in as many fights, the reigning UFC strawweight champion suffered a likely hand injury en route to a dominant defense of her UFC title.
"Who's next? I don't know. Probably my hand is broken again," Jedrzejczyk said at Sunday's post-fight press conference. "I must go to the hospital, but we will see. Probably I will need to take a few more months off, but I will see. It's all Dana (White)'s decisions. I'm going to fight with everyone, any time, anywhere."
After starting slow, Jedrzejczyk badly bloodied Letourneau's right eye and left her opponent's lead leg a swollen mess to pick up a unanimous decision win (50-45, 49-46 x2) in the co-main event of UFC 193.
The win marked the second defense of Jedrzejczyk's UFC title reign, which began in March with a vicious upset over
Carla Esparza, and continued in June with a even more devastating performance over
Jessica Penne, during which Jedrzejczyk suffered a badly broken right thumb.
Due to the lopsided nature of those two fights, plus Letourneau's status as a relative unknown, Jedrzejczyk entered UFC 193 as the biggest betting favorite of the card. However Letourneau proved to be a game competitor, taking Jedrzejczyk down in the opening round and willingly standing and trading with the Muay Thai stylist.
Jedrzejczyk ultimately pulled away in the fight's latter rounds, piling up a 227-120 striking advantage over her Canadian counterpart. But the finish never came, as Letourneau ate flurry after flurry and continued to hunt for her own offense as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
"I just wanted to take it easy," Jedrzejczyk said. "I knew that Valerie was kind of tough, so I was not in a hurry. I just did my job.
"This is what I said before the fight," the champ added. "She can hit hard, she can take a lot, so I hope you enjoyed the fight."
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