Dana White confirmed during Friday evenings UFC press conference that “Thug” Rose Namajunas will make the first defence of her strawweight Championship against the woman she took the belt from in dramatic fashion, Joanna Jedrzeczyk.
The fight was announced as being the co-main event for UFC 223 which will be held at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York on 7th April 2018.
Namajunas shocked many in the MMA world with the brutal manner in which she stopped Jedrzejczyk in the first round to capture the strawweight title back in November at UFC 217. Joanna had previously seemed untouchable at strawweight, defeating everyone the UFC put in front of her in dominant fashion on her way to matching RondaRousey’s record for most consecutive title defences. An immediate rematch seemed the logical choice for a division with no clear immediate contenders but many in the fanbase questioned whether Jedrzejczyk warranted a rematch when considering the way in which Namajunas picked her apart inside just 1 round.
Despite those concerns, the rematch has been booked and Jedrzejczyk will look to exact revenge for the only loss of her MMA career to date while Namajunas looks to prove that the outcome of the first fight was no accident. You can be certain that Jedrzejczyk will want to put in a much stronger showing this time out and prove a point to both herself and her fans that matching her title defence record is the only thing she has in common with Ronda Rousey.
UFC 223 will be headlined by a Lightweight contest between current Interim title holder Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Dana White claimed during the press conference that the winner would be champion but in a move many found confusing, refused to confirm whether or not this meant that Conor Mcgregor had been stripped of the belt.
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