Joanna Jedrzejczyk has always been intense on fight week, building to a ferocious crescendo when the Octagon door shuts and it’s just her and her opponent. This time around, as she prepares for her Saturday rematch with Rose Namajunas, the intensity appears to have kicked in earlier, but this fight against the woman who took her strawweight title isn’t about what you think it might be. In other words, it’s not about what James Brown called “The Big Payback.”
“It was never like, oh, I want to quit or she’s better,” Jedrzejczyk said of the aftermath of the first loss of her career at UFC 217 in November.