Former UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will finally come back after an absence of 2 years! She will fight Zhang Weili in a rematch of their fight in 2018. It was the last time that the fans saw Joanna fight inside the UFC Octagon.
Although she was on a break from fighting inside the cage, Joanna was pretty busy outside of it. During a recent interview with Mike Bohn, the Polish fighter finally shed some light on what she was up to during her time away from the fighting.
Joanna previously stated she just does not want to be limited to only being a good fighter. The 35-year-old also wants to expand her wings in the field of business as well.
On her social media platforms, Joanna always posts sponsorship advertisements which result in extra revenue on top of her career earnings throughout her UFC run.
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From energy drink companies to supplement companies, Joanna has been pretty active in doing business outside UFC. However not only that, but she has also been pursuing her own personal interests in the last couple of years.
Joanna became a licensed rally racing driver as she made her debut at the Drawski Rally of Independence on November 13th of 2021. Speaking on that, Joanna added,
“I have been super busy, you know. Super super busy fighting, focusing on sports life. But I was always very hungry person to explore life, living life and now I have all these opportunities.”
“Like I said, I started doing things I wanted to do for my whole life like playing Tennis, (and) piano. I graduated on other studies. Did my racing debut because I want to be a professional driver and do car racing in the future.”
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Aside from her sponsorship affiliation with brands such as Monster Energy, Puma etc, she has her own vitamin/supplements company called ‘MYLABS.’ The company was founded in 2022 itself and Joanna occupies the role of CEO of the company.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk explains her two-year hiatus after UFC 248
Joanna Jedrzejczyk had an absolute war against Weili Zhang at UFC 248 in March of 2018. It was instantly labelled as the greatest female fight in the UFC. However, that was the last of Joanna for two years after that. Why wasn’t she more active in the last two years?
It seems like the pandemic situation had a lot to do with it. Because of the pandemic, fans were not allowed to attend the events. According to Joanna, she did not want to fight without the presence of fans in the arena. She said,
“When I was the UFC champ, I was fighting very very often, you know? I was very active. So one of the reasons I took longer break was the time for myself. I wanted to catch the balance between private life and the business and sports life.”
“Of course, there was no fans in the arena. (And) for me there is sport, any sport without fans. I’m very happy that I can perform in the front of thousands of people in the arena or behind the TV.”
Joanna will of course get to perform with the fans in attendance this weekend at UFC 275. The event will take place overseas in Singapore at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. It is expected to be a sell-out with almost 12,000-15,000 spectators in attendance.
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The fans would certainly hope for another banger of a fight between Joanna and Zhang Weili. However, this time around, it will be a 3 round fight. Hence, there is every possibility that this bout will have an even higher output this time around. Hence the fans better brace themselves for another instant classic between the two.