I have nothing personal against Ronda Rousey. I mean I’m a cynic, but it’s nothing personal.
Her attitude on TUF did sour me a bit but she is a dominant athlete and fighter. Upon reading My Fight/Your Fight I can also say she is an exceptional role model regardless of sport or gender. She has helped bring WMMA into the mainstream for her ability rather than looks and is the biggest crossover star in the history of the sport.
And so far the UFC has not allowed her to headline a Pay-Per-View card voluntarily . . . with good reason.
Because WMMA is in its infancy, the fact is that Ronda Rousey sits upon an extraordinarily weak division. Her highlight reel is admirable but it is difficult to get excited for title fights between Rousey and fighters who, if their objective skill level was transferred across gender lines, wouldn’t even tickle the top 10. Even her UFC 184 buy rate can be attributed to people who originally wanted to see Weidman vs. Belfort sticking around.
Hopefully Rousey vs. Correia at UFC 190 will change that, but find me an MMA pundit who’s genuinely excited to see Bethe Correia get a title shot on top of a relatively weak undercard and I’ll give them a business card for a neurologist. So despite WMMA having a charismatic and dominant champion with crossover appeal, it has yet to produce a fighter that is compelling to MMA fans’ wallets. And that’s a little disheartening.
No more. Joanna Jedrzejczyk is it. She is the chosen one. Give her a lightning scar on her forehead, chop off her hand and give her a lightsaber because she is the chosen one.
On the shallowest level it is because Joanna (sorry, refuse to type out the last name more than once) is a striker.
Any technician can appreciate grinding clinch work and ground positioning but there’s a difference between being appreciable and exciting. The fact is it’s a lot easier to excite fans on the feet than on the mat. Demian Maia held down Ryan LaFlare for four rounds with dominant Brazilian jiu-jitsu but it was agonizing to watch.
It also doesn’t hurt that Joanna fights like she’s in an action movie. She can throw going forwards, going backwards, stepping laterally, from the back of an elephant seal, while riding a tandem bicycle, etc. She sneaks in elbows and kicks in gaps so small my mind didn’t have time to register it. She defends takedowns masterfully, understanding positioning and momentum all the while taking time out of her busy day to beat her opponent with her spare hand.
Hell at one point it seemed like she was just toying with Penne, which makes her MMA’s first official supervillain.
Steven Segal watches Joanna fight and goes, “okay that’s a little much”.
The fact is that while Rousey is ultra-dominant, there is an sizable number of MMA fans who say to themselves, “She’s good, but her division is also that bad”. And while we can debate the merit of that statement’s truthfulness, watching Cat Zingano fly across the octagon as every fan face palmed didn’t do much to change it.
But with Joanna, the perception isn’t that her division is that bad (despite being newer than the bantamweight division), it’s that she’s that good. She’s earned every drop of that praise.
If the UFC doesn’t make Joanna’s next title defense the headliner of a PPV event it will be a travesty. Not for political correctness, but because she is one of the most skilled and entertaining champions across all combat sports. If Vitor Belfort fought with even half the adaptability and variance that Joanna displayed he would’ve torn off Chris Weidman’s head and used it as a hood ornament.
If you can’t tell, I’m a cynical man(child). Yet I spent the last half hour telling my sister and every casual MMA fan I knew to look up Joanna . . . Jedrzejczyk (that hurt) and all of her previous fights and then join me the next time she’s up. It takes a lot for me to even go to a bar and watch a fight but I wouldn’t think twice about spending money to watch this crazy Polish berserker reenact Mortal Kombat combos on people’s faces.
The UFC won’t have to cram promos down our throats to get us to see Joanna Jedrzejczyk (agh hand cramp!) fight.
Because she will be WMMA’s first legitimate PPV star.
And we should help her along her way.
