Despite losing her first flyweight fight, former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas is aiming to become a two-division champion and believes her second fight at flyweight will be more successful.
Rose Namajunas, she’s got her eyes on the prize. Her first flyweight fight? Didn’t go as planned.
She had her debut at 125 pounds, but it didn’t quite work out. Now, the ex-strawweight champ gets another shot. She’s up against Amanda Ribas this Saturday, headlining UFC Vegas 89.
Last September, she moved up a weight class. Ended up losing to top contender Manon Fiorot, a unanimous decision. But “Thug Rose” isn’t deterred. She’s more motivated to get that UFC gold back. And she thinks it could happen sooner than you’d think.
“Becoming a two-division champion this year? That’d be awesome,” Namajunas said. She was speaking at the UFC Vegas 89 media day on Wednesday. She knows it’s a steep climb, and she’s had setbacks. But she believes it’s doable. “God-willing, that’s what’s going to happen. I’ve just got to take care of business this weekend.”
Namajunas has held the UFC’s strawweight title twice. She’s beaten the best in that division, including current champ Zhang Weili and the recently retired Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Jessica Andrade, Michelle Waterson-Gomez, and Tecia Torres? She’s got wins over them too.
She’s had another camp to adjust to her new physique and routine. She’s confident her second flyweight fight will go better.
“My body’s feeling great,” Namajunas said. “I definitely put on more muscle for this fight. I’m around the same size as I was last time, just more filled in, more dense. Muscles are recovering, training camp was intense, but yeah, injury-free and healthy. My immune system’s super strong. I think some of those weight cuts before taxed my immune system a bit, so I’m very thankful for the health.”
She even said she feels like she’s throwing harder at 125 pounds. That could be bad news for future opponents. She’s already got memorable knockouts of Zhang and Jedrzejczyk.
For now, she’s content with having bragging rights over Zhang. She’s not in a rush to drop back down in weight. Avoiding a tough cut has already paid off for Namajunas outside of the cage, even as she seeks her first win in a new division.
“I just think health-wise, it’s just not a healthy thing to do for me at this point,” Namajunas said of a possible return to strawweight. “I know that I can keep pushing through it. My mind got a lot stronger with cutting the weight, but I could tell my body was definitely not liking that as much.
“I could tell from my last strawweight cut. My eyes were sunken in and now it’s kind of hard to see myself like that. So even though the will gets stronger, the flesh gets weaker, so to me I’m all about health and wellness. Even though we’re about to go and fight, I want to preserve as much as possible.”