Jacksonville, FL — Key to her second title reign will be giving back, Rose Namajunas said following UFC 261.
“Thug” Rose reclaimed her strawweight title Saturday, upsetting China’s Weili Zhang in the co-main event in front of a packed house at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. The first UFC event with fans in the the building in over a year (discounting limited numbers in the promotion’s last Fight Island stint), the roof nearly blew off the building when Namajunas (10-4) landed a head kick on the now-former champ.
A few strikes later, and Namajunas was a two-time UFC champion. A historic first among female fighter.
“She definitely was quick, I was expecting that. I was also expecting her to be very determined, and just ready. I was ready to go 25 minutes if it had to go to that,” Namajunas said following the fight, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press at the UFC 261 post-fight press conference. “Obviously it was pretty short, but I got my range on her. I have really good timing, thanks to my coaches and my preparation — that’s kind of the product.”
“Not a lot of girls hit like me,” she added later.
Namajunas struggled in the spotlight during her first title reign, which saw her win the belt from Joanna Jedrzejczyk in 2017, then defend it in an immediate rematch the following year. This time out, she’s taking a different, more altruistic approach. “I want to produce fruit with this seed that I’ve been given. I just want to give back. I think that’s going to be the main focus right now,” she told Cageside Press backstage in Jacksonville.
“I have to kind of talk with my team and figure out how exactly I want to do that,” she noted as well during Saturday’s press conference. “There’s some things on the horizon. In May, there’s an Earthship build that I was thinking about maybe participating in. But we’ll see what’s the best route of action going forward.”
On the fighting front, moving forward, there are plenty of options for Namajunas. Jedrzejczyk has already thrown her name in the hat. A rematch with Zhang is possible. That possibility is something Namajunas would consider. “We’ll talk about it. It’s understandable that she’s pretty upset about how quickly it went. But that was perfect timing, and everything like that.”
“I’d be open to it. We’ll have to see.” Namajunas also suggested Saturday that “There’s no obvious answer at the moment. I kind of want to see how Carla [Esparza] and Yan [Xiaonan] play out.”
Ahead of UFC 261, Namajunas had come under fire for controversial statements regarding Zhang’s home country, which remains under communist rule. As a Lithuanian, Namajunas was relating to her own heritage, and history of her people — the nation was occupied by Soviet forces for decades, and did not achieve independence until the early 90s. But when she let slip the old “better dead than red” cold war slogan, and referred to Zhang as representing “red,” she instantly came under attack, accused by some of being racist.
Following the fight, Namajunas addressed the uproar. ‘It was a little hard just because it wasn’t my intent. I was just being myself and trying to talk about my history and stuff, my story,” she stated. “It never was personal against Weili. Every opponent’s a little different, and it just brings something out of you. It never was my intent. But it’s something that, I was thankful for the obstacle, to overcome that. Because every champ goes through the ups and downs of people loving them, but people hating them at the same time.”
Watch the full UFC 261 post-fight press conference with Rose Namajunas above.
