4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Jessica Penne
UFC Fight Night “Jedrzejczyk vs. Penne”
Saturday, June 20
O2 World | Berlin
When she took the UFC women’s strawweight title from Carla Esparza with brutal force at UFC 185 in Dallas, it was clear Joanna Jedrzejczyk had the makings of a violent queen. In her first title defense three months later in Berlin, she made a royal example of challenger Jessica Penne and let the MMA world know she planned to reign in blood.

While the fight may have turned bloody anyhow, hostilities between the champion and challenger were stoked at weigh-ins, where Jedrzejczyk gave Penne a dry pasta necklace in one of her typical, surreal gift-giving taunts. Penne attempted to up the ante by offering Jedrzejczyk a ring, suggesting she looked like Gollum of “Lord of the Rings” lore. When Penne tried to slip the ring inside Jedrzejczyk’s bikini top, the champion slapped away her hand with a ferocity that typically precedes impromptu fistfights. When the actual fight came, Jedrzejczyk won the first round, but she had eaten a few punches from the rangy Penne and was tossed with a nifty headlock throw at the horn.

The second round provided us the blood in which “Joanna Violence” was born. All of a sudden, her right crosses were laser-guided and she casually crashed into Penne’s chest and face with front kicks. At the two-minute mark of the round, Penne tried to grab onto Jedrzejczyk and clinch, only to be struck with a savage right elbow in tight. The elbow obliterated Penne’s nose, turning it into a mangled crimson fountain in the center of her face. For the next three minutes, Jedrzejczyk battered Penne from pillar to post, smearing her challenger’s face and her own body with blood that splattered from every torturous striking flurry -- literally dozens of shots firing from all eight of the Polish champion’s striking points. When the round expired, referee Marc Goddard essentially followed Penne directly back to her corner to inform her chief second Eric DelFierro that his fighter was dangerously close to being stopped and that he needed to protect her. As irrational and delusional as folks in MMA can be, it is hard to believe DelFierro was not acutely aware as he stared into the giant horizontal slash across the width of Penne’s crushed nose.

Jedrzejczyk did not get extra frisky at the sight of Penne’s blood. Instead, round three continued the beatdown at the same tempo and measure, which made it all the more disconcerting. As Penne’s face continued spewing blood all over the cage, Jedrzejczyk stalked forward, emotionless, lancing her in the head. At one point, Penne covered over her head along the fence and Jedrzejczyk waited until she peeked her face out, then drilled her with a right cross square in the mouth. A right hand and clean knee followed, and Goddard was forced into action to rescue the plasma-soaked Penne.

The fight lasted 14 minutes, 22 seconds. Jedrzejczyk did the vast majority of the bloodletting and face-bashing in eight minutes or so. The fastidious, attritive nature of the beatdown literally provoked journalists on-site in Berlin to ask Jedrzejczyk if she was intentionally punishing Penne in the cage, like a true bloodthirsty medieval.

“I was listening to my corner and my trainers,” she said. “They said that I should take it easy, just throw a few punches one by one with some extra angles. I did what they said, and it was a key to the success.”

Jedrzejczyk was asked a few minutes later if she felt the fight should have been stopped sooner, given its horrifically one-sided nature.

“I cannot respond for my opponents. She was supposed to win this fight, this title, but I was ready for her,” she said with a smirk, folding her arms over her chest. “I cannot help that I am simply the best.”

Jedrzejczyk piqued interest when she clattered Esparza for the gold, but her ruthless nonchalance against Penne, in and out of the cage, is what made her “Joanna Violence” and put the marauding queen with the thousand-yard stare deep into the bloody hearts of fight fans.

Finish Reading » Dos Anjos vs. Pettis