Even with a rematch booked, Joanna Jedrzejczyk continues to brood over her first fight with Rose Namajunas. And for the woman formerly known as “Joanna Champion,” that brooding apparently involves an awful lot of excuses.

In yet another interview, Jedrzejczyk can be seen shifting the blame for her loss at UFC 217 squarely onto the shoulders of her team, who she says “failed” her in the lead-up to that fight.

“Many people asked me if I change coaches, club. … My answer was ‘no’ because my coaches did their best to be in the best possible shape,” Jedrzejczyk told Polsat Sport (via Bloody Elbow). 
“The doctor, who had a big impact on how I felt 30 hours before the fight, failed.”

This is not exactly a new explanation, either for MMA in general or specifically for Jedrzejczyk. It’s the old “weight cut ate my homework” defense. And it pretty much never, ever works.

Jedrzejczyk (14-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) has doubled down on that strategy in recent weeks, and the result has been fairly typical. By refusing to just let her loss to Namajunas (7-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) be and focus all attention on the rematch, slated for UFC 223, she’s squandered much of the goodwill she’d built up with fans during her reign as a popular, charismatic strawweight champion.

The worst part is, it’s entirely a problem of her own making.

There are plenty of things that can go wrong for fighters. Some excuses are even bound to be legitimate. But once the cage door closes, no one really cares. Going through with the fight means trading away your right to claim that you were in no condition to fight.

At this point, the best thing Jedrzejczyk could do is stop talking about the first fight. Like, completely. No more explanations or excuses. No more blaming the people around her. Just stop talking about it.

The good news is, there’s another ready topic of conversation just sitting there. This fight is going to happen again, which, if you’re Jedrzejczyk, means a chance to prove that it was all just a fluke in the first place.

Maybe limit yourself to talking about that. At least it’ll be a refreshing change.

For more on UFC 223, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.