Joanna Jedrzejczyk is citing a terrible weight cut for her loss to Rose Namajunas at UFC 217.
The former UFC women's strawweight champion said in a video interview with Przemysław Osiak of Przeglad Sportowy in her native Poland that she had to cut about 16 pounds in 14 hours — and the botch has led her to split with her nutrition team, Perfecting Athletes.
“It was an accident what happened,” Jedrzejczyk said, translated from Polish. “I know that I should have won the match, and I know that I could have won the match. ... The people that I was working with led me to a critical state.
“I told my doctor I need to do whatever to weigh 115. I don't care if I have to be in a tub with whatever temperature. It gets harder and harder as you get older to cut weight.”
Namajunas beat Jedrzejczyk by first-round knockout at UFC 217 last month at New York’s Madison Square Garden to win the UFC women's strawweight belt. Jedrzejczyk, 30, was undefeated going into the bout and held the title since March 2015.
While Jedrzejczyk said she would forgive the Perfecting Athletes team of Paulina Indara and Michelle Ingels “as humans,” she said she cannot work with them anymore. Jedrzejczyk was very close with Indara and Ingels, living with them in Florida when she was training at American Top Team.
“The mistakes that they made were unforgivable,” Jedrzejczyk said. … “I can’t work with those kinds of people.”
Jedrzejczyk (14-1) is no stranger to difficult weight cuts and has talked repeatedly about going up to the flyweight division, especially since the UFC opened up the 125-pound weight class this year. On Friday, MMA News Poland posted a frightening video of a Jedrzejczyk weight cut from before her fight with Jessica Penne in 2015. This was prior to Jedrzejczyk’s time with Perfecting Athletes, which has more than 200 clients across multiple sports.
In the past, Jedrzejczyk has lauded the work of Perfecting Athletes, who she had been with for about a year. Leading up to her fight with Jessica Andrade at UFC 211 in May, Jedrzejczyk praised Indara and Ingels as her family away from Poland. She referred to Indara as her “gatekeeper,” because she was more like a manager and close friend than a nutrition coach.
“I don’t like to be by myself,” Jedrzejczyk said earlier this year. “I like people around me. When I’m back home, there is always my fiancé, my sisters, my little nephew, my friends. Every weekend I go to my parents’ house and we spend the weekends together. It’s all about the right people.”
Indara said Friday that she could not speak specifically about Jedrzejczyk’s situation due to client confidentiality.
“The priority of our business is the health and safety of our clients,” Indara said in a statement. “We stand by our professional ethics and practices.”
Translation from Polish for MMA Fighting by Karolina Krauze.