Joanna Had Legs Go Numb Prior To UFC 217
Following issues with her weight cut leading up to her UFC 217 loss to Rose Namajunas, Joanna Jedrzejczyk decided to leave her nutrition team, Perfecting Athletes.
On the latest episode of The MMA Hour, the former strawweight champion described how she was forced through a dramatic weight cut at the eleventh hour ahead of the weigh-ins for the Madison Square Garden card.
“Man, I felt so bad, I had to cut 15 pounds in 14 hours; I did it in 14 hours,” Jedrzejczyk told Ariel Helwani.
“I think Perfecting Athletes couldn’t believe that I did that. I start my weight cut at 5 pm on Thursday and I was on weight five minutes before 11 am on Friday, so it was a miracle. I was praying to God for this miracle.
“And it happened. I took this mentally. I was crying, I was so weak but I believed it. I said to one of the Perfecting Athletes team, ‘Hey, it’s a shame for a champion to not make her weight’, and then I made it — a thing I couldn’t believe.”
Jedrzejczyck started to feel numbness in her legs the day of UFC 217 after making the championship weight of 115 pounds.
“After the weigh-ins, I had only fluids and I went to bed because I took just two 15-minute naps during the weight cut,” she explained.
“The thing is, my legs got numb after I woke up. I said to my doctor, ‘Hey, my legs are numb’, and she said, ‘nothing to worry about, we’re going to hydrate you more’ and ‘you’re going to be fine’.
“But the next day, I felt the same and thought the most crazy things. I took the fight mentally. I wanted to go into the fight and push away all of the worries.”
She feared that requesting an IV from the doctor could have potentially led to the fight being cancelled.
“Like I said, I could’ve gone to the doctor and got an IV, but I was worried that they were going to cancel my fight. I couldn’t do that to my fans. I’m a real warrior. And if people want to believe they can believe. If not, I will prove them wrong. I’m still the champion.”
Jedrzejczyk insisted that she could no longer work with Perfecting Athletes having paid the “ultimate cost” for a mistake they made.
“They were like family, you know. I trusted them so much and I paid the ultimate cost for someone’s mistake,” she said. “They agreed with me. We sat and talked on Monday after the fight and they agreed with me that they made a mistake, but I paid the ultimate price.”
“I was light in this camp,” Jedrzejczyk continued when asked what mistake had been made by Perfecting Athletes.
“I was like 127 on the Friday and Saturday a week before the fight. We were planning to get me to 125 by Tuesday, but my weight went up on Sunday to 130 and I couldn’t drop the weight for three or four days. I did everything that I could, and it’s their mistake. I started my weight cut with the limit at 130, so it was almost impossible to make that weight.”