Former champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk and middleweight prospect Ian Heinisch have reportedly informed the UFC of their retirements

Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Ian Heinisch are officially no longer mixed martial artists, at least, in the professional sense. The two have informed the UFC of their retirements from the sport after walking away from active competition in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Joanna Jędrzejczyk leaves behind a strong legacy that very few women on the UFC roster have matched, and even fewer have exceeded. For most of her tenure with the promotion, the self-proclaimed 'Boogeywoman' was an undefeated phenom. Her career peaked during her 115-pound title reign in the UFC.

She remains the UFC women's strawweight champion with the most consecutive title defenses. During her run, she defeated the likes of Jéssica Andrade, Carla Esparza and Cláudia Gadelha, two of whom went on to capture UFC gold themselves.

Unfortunately, for Ian Heinisch, he never matched Joanna Jędrzejczyk's career heights. The former middleweight entered the UFC to a fair bit of hype, as he boasted a 11-1 record, including a short stint as the LFA interim middleweight champion and a knockout win on Dana White's Contender Series.

While his promotional debut and sophomore outing went well, his momentum came to a disastrous halt. Immediately after his first two UFC wins, which extended his record to 13-1, Heinisch lost four of his next five bouts to go 1-4. After the emergence of concussion issues, he made the decision to retire.

As things stand, neither fighter seems primed to make a sudden return. But as Conor McGregor implied after Robbie Lawler announced his retirement from the sport, fighters rarely commit to their retirement. Henry Cejudo is evidence of that.

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What did Joanna Jędrzejczyk say about the 'BMF' title?

Despite announcing her retirement after failing to defeat Zhang Weili in her 2022 comeback after a two-year hiatus, Joanna Jędrzejczyk flirted with the idea of a comeback, but only if certain conditions are met. Specifically, she mentioned that a crack at a women's version of the 'BMF' title could convince her to make a return.

It was an interesting claim, as her close friend and American Top Team teammate Jorge Masvidal was the inaugural 'BMF' champion in the UFC. And if 'Gamebred's' statements ahead of Dustin Poirier's loss to Justin Gaethje mean anything, he would prefer to keep the title at ATT.