Joanna Jedrzejczyk says contract stipulates title shot with UFC Tampa win

After Weili Zhang finished Jessica Andrade at UFC Shenzhen to become the new UFC women’s strawweight champion, the natural question is to ask who is next in line for a title shot. According to former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the answer to that is it’s her.

Jedrzejczyk spoke to Polish news outlet Polsat Sport recently and said that her contract to fight Michelle Waterson at UFC Tampa in October stipulates that the winner of the bout will get the next women’s strawweight title shot.

Here’s what Jedrzejczyk said (translated from Polish):

“We have in the contract that the win will get a duel of the strawweight category. The fight for the title is closer than we think,” Jedrzejczyk said. “After the victory with Michelle on October 12, I hope that in the first quarter of 2020 I will get a chance to return to the throne.”

According to Jedrzejczyk, she took the fight with Waterson because she didn’t want to wait until next year to fight for the belt. With a win, it should guarantee that Jedrzejczyk is next in line for the belt, especially since it’s allegedly in her contract.

Of course, there are other deserving contenders who would disagree with that, believing they should be next in line for the tile shot. You can’t count out former champion Rose Namajunas. Then there’s Tatiana Suarez, who is the top contender right now according to most fans and media. She deserves to fight for the title next after going undefeated so far in the UFC. But Suarez says she wants to improve her game after squeaking by Nina Ansaroff in her last fight, and if she does take another fighter in the meantime it would open the door for Jedrzejczyk or Waterson to get that next title shot against Zhang.

Do you believe that the winner of Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Michelle Waterson will indeed fight Weili Zhang next for the title?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/4/2019.