MMA star on ‘Dancing with the Stars’. Joanna Jędrzejczyk joins the programme

An MMA champion with an impressive track record

Joanna Jędrzejczyk, an icon of Polish MMA, has been named among the contestants for the next series of ‘Dancing with the Stars’. She was the first Polish woman to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Between 2015 and 2017, she held the UFC strawweight title, for fighters weighing up to 52 kilograms.

She also has numerous successes in Muay Thai to her name. Among other achievements, she won four amateur world championships, three European championships and five Polish championship titles. In 2011, she also became the Polish amateur boxing runner-up.

She retired from competitive sport in 2022. She is the first woman in history to have been honoured twice with a place in the UFC Hall of Fame.

Joanna Jędrzejczyk: From MMA to TV shows

Appearing on a dance show will not be Jędrzejczyk’s first foray into television. In 2013, she hosted the second series of the programme “MMAster”, broadcast on TVN Turbo.

She later appeared in the TVN productions “Agent – Gwiazdy” and “Starsza pani musi fiknąć”. In 2021, she sat on the judging panel for the third series of “Dance Dance Dance” on TVP2. She also appeared as an expert on the programme “Beat Me If You Can”.

The sportswoman has also appeared in the film “Kobiety mafii 2”. She is, moreover, the founder of the JJ Sport Foundation, an organisation that supports children through physical activity and collaboration with specialists, including dietitians and psychologists.

An MMA icon among the stars of the autumn series

Joanna Jędrzejczyk is not the only person whose participation in the new series of “Dancing with the Stars” has already been announced. Actresses Izabela Kuna and Helena Englert, actor Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Marta Wiśniewska (“Mandaryna”), satirist Piotr Gumulc and chef Matteo Brunetti are also set to take to the dance floor.

There will also be some changes to the programme’s line-up. Ewa Kasprzyk, who has been judging the contestants alongside Rafał Maserak, Tomasz Wygoda and Iwona Pavlović since spring 2024, will not be returning to the judging panel. Michał Bandurski, meanwhile, will be in charge of directing the new series.