This could be the best strawweight match up yet.
UFC 217 is just full of interesting match ups and this one is no exception. The more time I spent analyzing this match up, the more exciting it seems to get. Both Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Rose Namajunas are strong willed competitors with tremendous striking by acumen and attitudes to match. These women are two of the toughest people on the planet period and the pre-fight lead up exemplifies that fact perfectly. While Joanna has tried to get inside her opponent’s head or usual, Namajunas has been relatively unfazed, using the opportunity to instead discuss the dangers and sadness of mental health how she will use herself as a beacon to shine a light on such a serious issue. But when it’s all said and done this is a fight that has the possibility of being the most exciting women’s MMA bout ever.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk is what you would call a specialist. She’s not looking to take you to the ground and beat you up, she isn’t willing to put you into her guard and look for fight ending submission. Plan and simple, she just wants to beat her opposition up, all with a variety of strikes. Joanna has masterful striking, all of her blows stinging and precise. For the most part she will get bouts started by using her jab to judge distance and build a rhythm to work off of as the fight carries on. When she does decide to start ramping things up, Joanna will turn her jab into a feint to set up her left hook and right straight with beautiful accuracy.
As far as this fight is concerned, Joanna is going to want to stick to a similar game plan in this match up and utilize her jab to force reactions out of Namajunas. From there the champion would be smart to use her variety of kicks, specifically the front kicks and specifically after using a hand technique. Throwing the kick with no set up will allow Namajunas to counter which she is growing more and more adept at doing. The kicks can be dangerous as they could very well lead to takedowns, that’s why forcing Rose backwards is imperative in this match up. Putting Namajunas on the back foot allows for greater opportunities to land devastating kicks as she retreats while at the same time not allowing her to plant for a counter.
Look how Joanna follows up with a kick right after hurting Valerie Letourneau with the front kick. It’s a go to move for the champ and she should stick to using it in this fight. Leg kicks will pay dividends for Joanna as well as her beautiful elbows in the clinch. Both strategies will be imperative in this match.
In terms of which fighter is more dangerous, it’s hard to argue against Rose Namajunas and her proven finishing ability. Namajunas has a background in traditional striking arts and you can see that with her bouncy, wider stance as well as her own kicking game that has a great deal of variety. But her ground game in particular is where she seems to shine as she holds multiple submission victory over top flight competition. Three rear naked chokes and a flying arm bar are highlights on her record which suggest one thing: when she get the opportunity to put her opponent in a compromising position, don’t expect them to last much longer.
This fight is very winnable for Namajunas, but it’s going to require some patience and diligence. Namajunas likes to go where the fight takes her, but doing so could also leave her on autopilot. Instead, she’ll need to use her well rounded game to constantly keep Joanna guessing. Namajunas needs to use her own jab to dictate the distance as well as constant movement. Standing right in front of Joanna will simply give the champion too many opportunities to attack in flurries. That’s why utilizing her own jab will be an important tool to keep Joanna from opening up with too many strikes. Coupled with her in and out movement, Rose can use any forward aggression to her advantage.
When she does decide to plant, and this is a dangerous strategy, she should indeed look for Joanna to engage in flurries so Namajunas can use the opportunity to draw her foe into a striking exchange hopefully leading to a takedown. Mixing things up is imperative for Rose Namajunas to nab a victory here. Each round she has to employ a different focus to help throw Joanna off her intentions.
This is likely to be the most intense match up yet at strawweight. Both women have the capability to make this a technical chess match with Rose Namajunas potentially offering more of an unpredictable plan of attack and Joanna Jedrzejckz setting traps and capitalizing on small openings.
Who do you think wins this fight?
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Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.
