- Michael Bisping heaped praise on Joanna Jedrzejczyk following her retirement at UFC 275
- “The Count” detailed how his fellow former UFC champion hinted at retiring before the fight
Joanna Jedrzejczyk suffered a devastating KO loss to her ultimate rival Zhang Weili in their highly-anticipated rematch at UFC 275, prompting her to retire after the fight.
Michael Bisping has joined the list of MMA fighters who have honored the former UFC women’s strawweight champ after she finally called it a career. Like most of her fellow former UFC stars, “The Count” also had a lot of good things to say about Jedrzejczyk.
Congratulations @JoannaMMA on an incredible career 👏 pic.twitter.com/LjfGC9cllB
— UFC (@ufc) June 12, 2022
A tribute to a legend
In a very touching way, Bisping paid homage to Jedrzejczyk on his YouTube channel. The Polish MMA star never tasted a win since beating Michelle Waterson in 2019 and succumbed to the power of Zhang in her last two bouts in the UFC.
However, Bisping reminded his viewers of how great and legendary Jedrzejczyk is regardless of how she ended her career.
“Joanna Jedrzejczyk retired in the octagon and I was getting very emotional,” Bisping said. “It was incredible. What Joanna has done for this sport, what she has given to this sport, she came here, she’s been in so many entertaining fights, she’s given her heart and soul, she’s talked a lot of s*** along the way, she’s made a lot of money, she’s knocked a lot of people out, she’s delivered on the violence, she’s been a star. She has been a star for the UFC and she has inspired so many female martial artists around the planet. Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s been there, done that, got the T-shirt.”
“She’s provided so much entertainment over the years. She’s going to be in the Hall of Fame, that’s without question. Without a doubt the most successful Polish martial artists, the most successful female European martial artists that we’ve ever seen. She’s going to go on, she’s going to have a family, that’s beautiful, she’s going to try to be a businesswoman as she said, but either way, she’s leaving with her head held high and she’s going to do great things. It was amazing. Well done. Congratulations Joanna on an incredible career.”
Joanna gave Michael a hint
The former UFC middleweight champion also revealed that he had already quizzed Jedrzejczyk to address her future prior to her UFC 275 bout. Bisping said the former strawweight queen just replied “maybe” but it was enough for him to realize that Jedrzejczyk was likely to hang the gloves if she loses.
“I asked her beforehand, ‘Joanna, no disrespect, but if you lose this fight, what happens? Are you going to retire?’ And she paused,” he detailed. “It went quiet and she thought about it for a long time and she said, ‘Maybe.’ And when someone says that it probably means that they will,” Bisping said. “It probably means that they will, and she did. She decided to hang it up, she took here gloves off and put them down on the canvas, and I was emotional. I was almost in tears, because to see a fighter, what they give of themselves, they give a piece of their soul, a piece of their being, they leave it in the octagon.”
Indeed, Bisping was right when he said that Jedrzejczyk left the sport with her head held high as she gave it all she got against Weili. More importantly, Jedrzejczyk retired still holding the record for most title defenses in the UFC women’s strawweight division with five.
