Although she’s largely known for her high-output striking, former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk has officially leveled up in BJJ. On Tuesday, Jedrzejczyk posted to Instagram that she has been promoted to blue belt. She was promoted by black belt Arrachion Olsztyn.
Jedrzejczyk is the most dominant champion in the relatively short history of the UFC’s strawweight division. She first captured the title in 2015 with a one-sided, second-round TKO victory over Carla Esparza. Jedrzejczyk would successfully defend that title five times before losing it in 2017 at the hands of current champion Rose Namajunas. She is coming off a split decision loss to former champion Zheng Weili in March 2020; that bout was the near-unanimous pick for the best fight of the year and arguably the best female fight of all time.
Jedrzejczyk comes from a kickboxing and Muay Thai background, so much of her grappling in MMA has been defensive in nature. Across 16 professional MMA victories, Jedrzejczyk is still in search of her first submission finish.
