While “Thug” Rose Namajunas is set to make her flyweight debut later this year, the former two-time women’s strawweight champion nearly walked away from the sport after losing her title for the second time.
Namajunas (11-5) was last in action against Carla Esparza in May of 2022, losing a split decision to fall to 0-2 against “The Cookie Monster” in title fights. Despite the close nature of the loss (in what was derided as a low-action fight), Namajunas nearly opted to hang up the gloves.
“I definitely thought I was done for a good amount of time. There’s definitely a number of things, but the way that I felt in the locker room, I just didn’t feel aggressive and I felt like I don’t really want to hurt anybody,” Namajunas said on The MMA Hour (h/t MMA Fighting) recently. “So I was just like, ‘I guess I’m done.’”
There were “a bunch of other factors that went into” her thought process when it came to retirement, Namajunas added. “It’s obviously not the first time that I’ve questioned whether I should keep doing this or not. I had already achieved becoming a champion, defending a champion belt, and then losing it, and then even at that point when I lost it and when I decided to rematch Andrade and I wanted her because I wanted to fix that mistake, to me, I never thought in my mind, ‘I’m going to make it to the belt again.’ That was the last thing on my mind, but as a martial artist, I needed to have that one fight. And then it was like, I guess I might as well keep going. Then I ended up becoming the champ again and that had so much meaning to it.”
After the Esparza loss at UFC 274, things changed — but eventually Namajunas went in a more spiritual direction with her thinking. “I forgot exactly all the factors. I know there was more than just the feeling of not really wanting to partake in violence. It was just kind of a spiritual thing. I just kind of questioned whether or not God wanted me to keep going and maybe this isn’t part of of a godly life. But I kind of came back around to, ‘No, this is definitely what God has called me to do.’ He kind of has all different special gifts for everybody and some people are warriors and some people are preachers, so obviously I’ve been gifted with the warrior spirit and just something special. I know I don’t have a ton of time left, but I know He’s not finished with me yet in this chapter.”
Thug Rose thought about retiring following her loss to Carla Esparza at #UFC274
But she's not done yet.
#UFC#MMA#RoseNamajunas#ThugRose pic.twitter.com/wEAhEYP8f6
— Cageside Press (@Cagesidepress) August 2, 2023
Namajunas fought Esparza for the inaugural UFC women’s strawweight championship in 2014, capping off The Ultimate Fighter 20. She found herself submitted in that fight, her official UFC debut, but went on to go 4-1 in her next five fights. That took her to a bout with Joanna Jedrzejczyk, then holding strawweight gold, in 2017. After stopping the Polish champ on the feet, Namajunas defended her title the following year in a rematch — then dropped the belt to Jessica Andrade.
In April of 2021, Namajunas reclaimed gold by knockout of Weili Zhang with a head kick, then once again defended her title in an immediate rematch. That took her to the rematch with Esparza, who has since lost the title to Zhang.
Namajunas is expected to make her flyweight debut against Manon Fiorot at UFC Paris on September 2.
