Joanna Jedrzejczyk Retains Title at The Ultimate Fighter Season 23 Finale

Joanna Jedrzejczyk

For those of you who, like myself, cannot pronounce Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s last name to save your life, you’re in luck. You can continue calling her Joanna “Champion” after she retained her belt last night at the The Ultimate Fighter Season 23 Finale at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The 28-year old champion fought an epic five-round main event war against her strawweight rival Claudia Galdeha, earning unanimous decision victory in her favor (48-46, 48-45, 48-46). This is the second victory Jedrzejczyk has over Galdeha, winning a controversial split decision back in December 2014.

The build up to the anticipated rematch was showcased on this season of the Ultimate Fighter, where opposing coaches Jedrzejczyk and Galdeha verbally–and rumored to also have physically–battled it out for the six weeks.

The co-main event featured light-heavyweight TUF finalists, Andrew Sanchez vs. Khalil Rountree. Sanchez won the fight, and his UFC contract in the 205-pound division, via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-26) after smothering Rountree for the greater part of the three round bout.

Strawweight TUF finalists Amanda Bobby Cooper and Tatiana Suarez both dominated in their semi-final fights on the show, making their match up at last night’s finale one of the most talked about on the card. In what started as Cooper leading us to think she was going to submit the former wrestling champion early in the first round, transitioned to Suarez gaining control and finishing the fight with a D’Arce choke in the first round, earning herself a UFC contract in the 115-pound division.

What’s next for the two newest additions to the UFC roster? After her quick finish, Suarez requested a spot on UFC 202 next month in her post-fight interview.

As for the main event, Galdeha stated this isn’t the end of the on-going feud after Jedrzejczyk handed her the second loss in her professional career, both from Jedrzejczyk.

Could this lead to a trilogy fight between the two most dominate women at 115 or will the winner of Rose Namajunas and Karolina Kowalkiewicza at UFC 201 in three weeks be the next title challenger?