The UFC women’s flyweight division hasn’t even officially kicked off yet and already its belt is being eyed by current strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Joanna has defended her 115 pound belt five times and largely cleaned out her division. And with the weight cut down to strawweight getting harder as she ages, moving up a weight class is looking better and better to her.
While the UFC is typically reluctant to allow its champs to chase two belts, all signs point to UFC president Dana White making an exception for Jedrzejczyk.
Following her flawless defeat of Jessica Andrade at UFC 211, White said he expected Jedrzejczyk to break Ronda Rousey’s record for most title defenses by a woman (which sits one away at 6) and then move up to the newly created 125 division.
“We heard about the new flyweight division, so maybe next year I will face a 125-pounder and maybe I will fight for the second belt,” Joanna said in an interview with TMZ Sports. “I want to be like Conor McGregor. I like to challenge myself, and definitely Conor sets a good example of hard work and big challenges. I want to reach that as well. I want to be a champion in two different divisions.”
This probably means taking on whoever wins the 125 pound belt on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, where 16 women will compete to be crowned the first champion of the division. That will be a bit of deja vu for Joanna, who won her 115 pound belt in similar fashion, beating the breaks off TUF 20 winner Carla Esparza and holding onto the title ever since.
But if she and the UFC are both looking to convince the world she’s the best women’s champ in history, there’s few better ways than to pull a McGregor and hold two division belts simultaneously … if only for a brief moment until the UFC releases one back into the wild.
