Edmonton — Flyweight contender Erin Blanchfield believes landing another high-profile match-up, this time against Rose Namajunas, despite losing her last outing shows how much she’s proven herself in the UFC.
“I did lose my last fight, but I’ve had a lot of great performances before then,” Blanchfield (12-2) stated during Wednesday’s UFC Edmonton media day. “And even my last fight, I went five rounds and it was a tough fight, we had a lot of back-and-forth. So it feels really good to still be fighting someone in the top five, still be in the title picture.”
Blanchfield and Namajunas were, in fact, originally announced by the promotion as headlining this Saturday’s card at the Rogers Place. That plan changed when Brandon Moreno vs. Amir Albazi, a possible title eliminator on the men’s side, joined the line-up. Still, it’s a five-round co-main event for the #3-ranked Blanchfield.
“As far as I know, they told me that I was going to be the co-main but that everything was still going to be the same so it would still be five rounds, that we’d still be able to do everything. Basically like a main event, but right before then,” Blanchfield told Cageside Press of how the change was presented to her. “I was a little bit [disappointed] at first, because I was worried it was going to be three rounds when I’d rather five, just to get that experience. But once I knew it was five rounds, I wasn’t worried, and the poster looks cool, I love having my face on it.”
Blanchfield and Namajunas are likely competing for the second spot in line in the women’s 125lb weight class. Manon Fiorot, who has defeated Namajunas and Blanchfield back-to-back, is expected to be next for newly re-crowned champ Valentina Shevchenko, who recently evened her trilogy with Alexa Grasso at 1-1-1.
Speaking on the match-up, Blanchfield suggested that “I think Manon, she’s a really big girl for the weight class. She knows how to use her range and her size. I think Valentina’s a more dynamic fighter, I think she has more skills, but I think Manon just knows how to use her body type for her style. I don’t know, I could see either girl winning.”
What she did agree with on Wednesday is that after the loss to Grasso and later a draw, some of the mystique has come off “Bullet.”
“I definitely think so. I think that always happens when somebody loses. I think people maybe sometimes harp on that person too much; everyone’s human, and everybody’s beatable. So I don’t think she’s like a bad fighter obviously or anything like that, but I think it’s definitely taken a little bit of the mystique off. She’s still a great fighter, she’s definitely getting up there with age and stuff too, so I guess we’ll see how her career goes.”
Watch the full UFC Edmonton media day appearance by Erin Blanchfield above.
