Joanna-Waterson React To Weight Controversy
The main event for UFC Tampa has gone from a fight of interest, to the center of controversy, to a must-watch… weigh-in?
The scheduled main event between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Michelle Waterson seems to be up in the air following a report that Jedrzejczyk alerted the UFC on Wednesday that she’d be unable to reach the 115-pounds contracted for their fight.
“I heard that Joanna was having trouble making weight and that she wanted to renegotiate the contract at 120 [pounds],” Waterson told MMA Fighting. “I took this fight under the assumption that we were both in contention for the strawweight belt, and to me, that’s a very serious undertaking. There’s only a couple things you have to do as a fighter, and one of them is make weight. My intention is to fight for the strawweight belt—not for the flyweight belt, not for the featherweight belt. The 115 belt.”
Many, including Waterson, assumed this fight acted as a title eliminator for a shot at strawweight champion Weili Zhang, and now it seems the former Strawweight champion feels the ability to get to 115-pounds isn’t there anymore.
“She’s made the weight plenty of times,” Waterson continued. “She’s fought at strawweight more than she’s fought at any other weight in the UFC. I don’t see how this would be any different. We’ve both known about this fight for quite some time, so that’s the most disheartening part of it all. I took this fight so I could fight Weili [Zhang] next—not [Valentina] Shevchenko.”
What makes this situation stranger is that not only is there two-days left for Jedrzejczyk to drop whatever weight she needs to make the limit, but her walking back the report late Wednesday afternoon.
“Did I miss something? Did I miss the weigh-ins today or what? Because the weigh-ins are on Friday,” Jedrzejczyk said on Instagram.
“I don’t know what’s going on, the weigh-ins are [Friday] and you’re all worried. The fight is on, the weigh-ins are on Friday. Keep it calm, guys. All fine, step-by-step. I will see you there.”
Report: MMA Mania