LAS VEGAS – Joanna Jedrzejczyk is one of the world's best fighters, but first and foremost, she calls herself a wise businesswoman.
She had a sense for business, she says, from a very young age when she would work in her parents' small grocery store in Poland. Jedrzejczyk, 28, grins as she recalls them shooing her from the store, pleading with her to do something, anything else but spend hours toiling inside the store.
And with that, the fast-rising star and strawweight champion launches, unsolicited, into a full-throated defense of the UFC's pay scale. She was asked about her early struggles to survive, and begins to hack away at public sentiment that UFC fighters are underpaid.
It's not a position that's commonly held by the sport's fervent fan base, and a group of fighters has filed an antitrust suit against the company for that very reason.
"I hear people say Dana [White, the UFC president] and Lorenzo [Fertitta, its CEO] should pay the fighters better," Jedrzejczyk said. "But they don't know what they're talking about. They really take good care of us. All of us, you know? They [the fans] don't know anything about what is really going on.
"There are so many opportunities for all of the fighters. This is so different. You do your job and they'll take care of you. In Muay Thai, the female fighters didn't earn the same kind of money as [the men] despite doing the same job. But in UFC, all of us can earn good money, men and women. If you give 100 percent to the UFC, you'll get 200 percent back."
Jedrzejczyk, who has several lucrative fights ahead of her, including her next one that has yet to be scheduled against No. 1 contender Claudia Gadelha, has held her belt for only nine months. She won it with an upset in Dallas on March 14 at UFC 185 when she dominated Carla Esparza in Dallas and stopped her at 4:17 of the second round.
That was followed by a successful title defense over Jessica Penne in Germany in June and then one at UFC 193 in November over Valerie Letourneau.
Her non-stop attacking style has made her one of the promotion's fastest rising stars. She can barely walk more than 20 feet in the swank casino without someone calling out her name or pleading with her for a photograph.
"Love you, Joanna!" one 40-something man shouts, as she beams and nods her head. A young girl no more than 12 holds out her iPhone. Jedrzejczyk sees her and pauses for a moment, leans her head toward the child and grins as the girl snaps a selfie.
It's only a few years since her days as a struggling Muay Thai fighter, but a world of difference.
She has the money now to buy pretty much whatever she wants, which is a vast difference from how things were for most of her life, particularly as a young fighter trying to make her way.
She was fighting for a living, but as recently as five years ago, despite being a Muay Thai champion multiple times, she had to make choices that were excruciatingly difficult.
"I remember when I had just five Euros in my pocket, and I needed to buy a ticket [for the subway] to get to training," she said. "But I didn't know what to buy: Bread or the ticket. It wasn't both. One or the other."
She says that shoes – lots of them – are the one indulgence she's allowed herself as her financial lot in life has improved since she's become a UFC champion.
Jedrzejczyk's investing her money, saving it, preparing for the day she understands inevitably will come when she can no longer command the large salaries she makes now.
"You have to be smart," she says.
Money, though, is not what drives her. She fought for next-to-nothing before and would probably do it again if she had to because she loves to fight so much.
Repeatedly, she says that mixed martial arts is "a beautiful sport," and that though there are risks that come with it, she loves it for its beauty.
There are downsides, of course, and she got an up-close view of one of them. She was the co-headliner of UFC 193, fighting in the co-main event against Letourneau when Ronda Rousey defended her title against Holly Holm.
Jedrzejczyk watched as Rousey put her heart and soul into promoting the event, and accommodating as many fans as she could. But when Holm knocked her out, many of those who had been singing Rousey's praises began mocking her.
"Ronda is great and she has done so much for so many fighters," Jedrzejczyk said. "There wouldn't be women in the UFC if it weren't for Ronda, but it isn't just the women that she helped. She helped the men, too. How many people started to watch the UFC because they heard of Ronda and wanted to see her, and became fans of this sport? That helps everyone else, and I think so many of us have to thank her for what she has done for this sport.
"The show is bigger, bigger, all the time and Ronda is a big part of that. I appreciate her for what she's done. And she'll be back."
So, too, will Jedrzejczyk, who is 11-0 and has leaped ahead of Rousey in the UFC's pound-for-pound rankings.
She fought to a split-decision victory over Gadelha last December in Phoenix, a bout that many felt Gadelha deserved.
Jedrzejczyk is eager for the rematch to prove she's a vastly different fighter than she was but a year ago.
"You get a chance to fight for the title and it changes you," Jedrzejczyk said. "You see what it takes. The confidence, I can't even tell you [how much that grows]. I'm a different person and a different fighter because of that. You know what? I'm not satisfied with it. I want to keep [the momentum] going. That's the goal."
