UFC
Dana White says he wanted Joanna Jedrzejczyk under Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, has to "rethink all of this" after card shakeup
Aug 29, 2015 - 11:40:01 AM Dana White says he wanted Joanna Jedrzejczyk under Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, has to "rethink all of this" after card shakeup

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Joanna Jedrzejczyk won't be shifting to UFC 193 under Ronda Rousey, but that was UFC President Dana White's initial plan this week following an injury to Robbie Lawler.

In an interview with Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports, White said he planned to have Jedrzejczyk defend her Women's Strawweight Title against Valerie Letourneau on that card, but Letourneau was not able to return that quickly.

"I just have to rethink all of this," White said of the schedule given this significant shift. "There are a lot of ways we can go, but we'll make this a kick-ass event and we'll get back at it and figure out [UFC 195] and do the same thing with that."

As for how they got Ronda Rousey to move her next fight forward a month and a half and to the other side of the world, White said the Women's Bantamweight Champ was more than happy to step up.

"I swear on my life, I called her today when I thought something might happen and I said to her, 'Hypothetically speaking, ... '" White said. "She interrupts me and said, 'I'll do whatever you need me to do.' So I laugh and I'm telling her how much I love that attitude and I'm going on and she stops me again and says, 'Hey, so what is up? What do you need?' She's incredible. In 15 years of doing this, I've never seen anyone remotely like this woman."

Penick's Analysis: This is the first I've seen that the UFC had Letourneau as a potential opponent, given it seemed Claudia Gadelha had earned her shot. I'll be curious to see which fighter winds up in the fight with Jedrzejczyk if she stays on that UFC 195 card on Jan. 2. The Gadelha fight is much more interesting for Jedrzejczyk, at least for me, and though Letourneau's put together three straight wins, I don't see that as a fight for which she's necessarily ready at this point. For the UFC 195 main event, with Rousey now fighting in November, she's not going to make a quick turnaround to fight there; I'd imagine the Fabricio Werdum-Cain Velasquez rematch, or the Robbie Lawler-Carlos Condit fight that Rousey is replacing, could take that slot in the 195 headliner.