Joanna Jedrzejczyk: ‘I want to be like Conor McGregor’

Strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is looking to become a two-division champion like a certain Irish superstar.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk has high standards for her legacy.

The UFC strawweight champion wants to go down in the history books as one of Poland’s finest athletes and one of the best female mixed martial artists of all time. She also plans to retire without a loss on her professional record.

She’s well on her way to doing so. The 29-year-old has defended her belt five times since capturing it with a dominant TKO win over Carla Esparza in March 2015, and is one of the most likable fighters on the UFC roster.

Barring a sudden halt to her success, it seems inevitable that Jedrzejczyk will eventually make her way to the 125-pound weight class, which will be formally added to the UFC at the conclusion of The Ultimate Fighter 26 later this year, in hopes of becoming one of the organization’s only two-division champions.

After most likely fighting Rose Namajunas or the Claudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz winner next, fighting for the flyweight title is next on her bucket list.

“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,” Jedrzejczyk told TMZ.

“Money fights” and super fights have been a big story throughout the past calendar year, with lightweight champ Conor McGregor becoming the first UFC fighter to hold two titles simultaneously late last year with a win over Eddie Alvarez. McGregor became only the third two-division champion in UFC history, joining former heavyweight and light-heavyweight titleholder Randy Couture and ex-welterweight and lightweight champ B.J. Penn.

Many fighters have expressed interest in taking a similar path, but most of those fighters are new champions with few title defenses. Jedrzejczyk has arguably cleaned out the 115-pound division, however, with only Namajunas remaining as a top contender that hasn’t fought the current champ. So it would be reasonable for Jedrzejczyk to move up in weight in the foreseeable future.

“I want to be like Conor McGregor,” she said. “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.”

Jedrzejczyk most recently defended her strawweight belt with a dominant decision win over Jessica Andrade in the UFC 211 co-main event earlier this month in Dallas.