Autographed Joanna Jedrzejczyk

It's a funny story how this whole project came about...I once waited in a long line to get Joanna's autograph in Las Vegas, but really, I just wanted to tell her (and show her) about the bobbleheads that I had been making for MMA athletes. At the time, I didn't have anyone that wanted to take a chance on me yet, and after showing Joanna my samples, it didn't look like she was interested either. But to tell you the truth, even though she didn't seem interested, I was actually just really excited that I got to speak to her for just those brief moments.  I'm a massive fan of hers. I consider Joanna to be one of the greatest MMA athletes of this generation. In fact, I have several photos up in my office of my MMA "heroes" and Joanna's photo is front and center. Anyway, as time was going by, and I was picking up more and more athletes to do their bobbleheads, I always knew that one day, I would try to ask Joanna again if she was interested. So one night I was hanging out with Brian Ortega, and we were wrapping up some design stuff for his bobblehead, when I was walking to my car and looked down at my phone and saw that she had sent me a message on IG. I'll never forget it. It said "Hey, how about a bobblehead for JJ?" 

Can I just tell you how surreal that moment was for me!? I was just hanging out with the #1 Featherweight in the world, and now one of my all time favorite fighters was messaging me. I was so happy! Looking back at it all, I think that it was that precise moment when I looked down at my phone, where I felt like all my hard work, all the pain, all the suffering....it was starting to pay off. 

With this bobblehead, I wanted to capture Joanna's signature #1 pose and try to portray her with extreme confidence. Her confidence is something that I think that we all love about her. It's infectious, really. 

This piece took about 5 months to make. I love how her fingers came out (each nail is painted). Her hair came out great too. I hope that you enjoy this MMA Bobblehead of Joanna Jedrzejczyk as much as I do.

-Dave