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In the lead-up to her UFC 248 strawweight title fight with Weili Zhang, Joanna Jedrzejczyk was sent an old photograph by a friend.
The photograph shows Jedrzejczyk in her locker room, moments before her first crack at UFC gold, which went down just shy of five years ago, on March 14, 2015. She ended up winning that title fight, defeating the division's inaugural champion Carla Esparza by second-round TKO, satisfying what she says was an overpowering, all-consuming need.
As she navigates the final days before her fight with Zhang, she says things feel different.