Former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk doesn’t care about her past losses to Valentina Shevchenko in Muay Thai. Although the pair is headed to their first ever MMA clash, at UFC 231 on Saturday night, Joanna guarantees she feels no pressure due to those defeats.
All three of Jedrzejczyk’s losses to Shevchenko happened between 2006 and 2008, so Jedrzejczyk explains they both have matured as fighters and can’t compare themselves to who they were over ten years ago.
“That doesn’t bother me. I don’t care, it was a decade ago.” Joanna said. (via Combate) “We are both much more talented and tough fighters. It’s a great challenge and I’m even more excited. Our muay thai fights were over a decade ago, we’re completely different fighters today. I know I am. I’m happy to be here and can’t wait for Saturday.”
Furthermore, Joanna claims there is not even any trace of bad blood between herself and Valentina, stating that she was happy to see Shevchenko in the UFC, calling their fight nothing more than just business.
“It’s a beautiful match up,” she said. “Maybe the best between female strikers. I still think she’ll try to take me down, but people don’t know how good my takedown defense is until they try. They haven’t got the chance to see me under these conditions. In fact, I was happy when I saw Valentina join the UFC and we got to talk. She’s my opponent and this is one of the best fights in female MMA history. It’s business, what do you expect? We’ll fight, we’ll be aggressive, but in a nice, sports, kind of way. When we leave the Octagon, we’ll just be human beings.”
Joanna Jedrzejczyk is expected to take on Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title at UFC 231, on December 8, in Toronto, Canada. The card will be headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion, Max Holloway, and top contender Brian Ortega.
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