UFC 248: Joanna Jedrzejczyk Comments on Massive Hematoma, Zhang Weili’s Performance, Following Their Epic War

Not only will people be buzzing about the epic war between  Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk for weeks, talk about the massive hematoma the former champ incurred will also continue.

Jedrzejczyk acknowledges the swelling impacted her performance

Jedrzejczyk faced the strawweight champ in the co-headliner of UFC 248, and the Polish star pushed the Chinese powerhouse for 25 minutes. Both women landed numerous, brutal shots during the contest, but it was Jedrzejczyk  who looked worse for wear, on account of a huge, hematoma she incurred.

While speaking to Joe Rogan afterward, the former champ had this to say about her performance and the head injury (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“You see my [swelling], I felt this, you know, she did great,” Jedrzejczk said. “There was something missing, but I felt all the punches, from the third round the [swelling] was bothering me and I felt it just getting more and more swollen, and my head was, like, going on and off.

“But all good. Congrats, champ, and I’m very happy that we gave you a good fight.”

It’s pretty understandable that Jedrzejczyk had issues fighting through the injury. Hopefully the vaunted striker didn’t incur any serious injuries and she has a speed recovery.

Was Jedrzejczyk  surprised by Weili?

Leading up to UFC 248, Jedrzejczyk claimed she was going to break the new champ with her volume and cardio. There were some periods in the later rounds where it looked like that might happen, but Weili continued to fire back.

When asked if she was surprised by Weili’s performance, however, Jedrzejczyk said this:

“Not really, I was ready for everything and anything,” Jedrzejczyk said. “We both put on a hell of a performance. I’m proud of myself and my team. We’ve been working so hard. Two or three times a day, 13 times a week for the last nine weeks at American Top Team.

“Big thanks to my coaches, Mikey Brown, Katel Kubis, Mikey Rod, Phil Daru, my physiotherapist Kamil Iwanczyk.”

It was a thrilling fight – one of the best in UFC history – and both women’s stock went up as a result. It’s going to be interesting, however, to see Jedrzejczyk  can work her way back into another title fight at 115. The star is only 32, but Jedrzejczyk’s is 2-4 now in her last 6 fights and she’s failed to reclaim the strawweight title twice. So, she’ll likely need to put together a fairly extensive winning streak before another title shot materializes.