One of the UFC’s best women’s champions might have earned another shot at gold.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk defeated Michelle Waterson by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46) in the main event of UFC Tampa on Saturday night at Amalie Arena. Jedrzejczyk was the superior fighter on the feet throughout — much like her title reign — and bloodied Waterson’s nose in the first round with an elbow. Jedrzejczyk stopped just about all of Waterson’s takedown attempts, landed leg kicks at will and kept Waterson mostly at the end of her punches.
The bout was billed as a possible title eliminator for the UFC women’s strawweight title, which is held by new champion Zhang Weili. Jedrzejczyk came in ranked No. 4 among strawweights by ESPN, while Waterson is No. 6.
Jedrzejczyk won despite injuring her foot early in the bout.
“I feel like I could do five more rounds,” Jedrzejczyk said. ” I fought with broken foot since the end of the second round, beginning of the third. It was hard.”
Jedrzejczyk (16-3) was the most successful champion in the 115-pound division’s history. The native of Poland had five title defenses between 2015 and 2017, the second best total ever among women in the UFC behind Ronda Rousey. Jedrzejczyk, 32, dropped her last fight to Valentina Shevchenko in a bout for the flyweight title, but has only ever lost in the UFC at strawweight to Rose Namajunas (twice).
Jedrzejczyk dropped the belt to Namajunas in 2017 and lost the rematch in 2018, but with Namajunas no longer champion it opens the door for Jedrzejczyk. Jessica Andrade knocked Namajunas out with a slam at UFC 237 in May to take the title and Zhang stopped Andrade in the first round in August to become the UFC’s first-ever Chinese titleholder.
Waterson (17-7) was on a three-fight winning streak and had won five of her last seven fights coming in. The Albuquerque, New Mexico, resident beat former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC Philadelphia in March to set up this matchup. Waterson, 33, is the former Invicta FC atomweight champion and will be the smaller fighter against Jedrzejczyk. Her goal has been to become the first UFC champion who is also a mother, but Saturday represented a setback in that quest.