Edmonton — “Thug” Rose Namajunas is a former two-time UFC women’s strawweight champion. She’s also one of the last three fighters still active in the promotion to have appeared on The Ultimate Fighter 20, which kicked off in 2014 and introduced the 115lb weight class to the promotion.
Carla Esparza, who defeated Namajunas in the UFC’s inaugural strawweight title fight, recently retired. Jessica Penne exited the promotion just days ago, with the former title challenger suffering a third consecutive loss. That leaves Namajunas, Tecia Pennington (then Torres), and Angela Hill as the last three fighters from the show still fighting for the company.
Unlike other seasons, the entire TUF 20 cast was brought into the UFC to launch the division, so that’s saying something. When it was pointed out to Namajunas (13-6) by Cageside Press during Wednesday’s UFC Edmonton media day, “Thug” Rose admitted that it was “surreal.”
“Yeah. We’re just pushing on. It’s pretty surreal. The UFC posted some of my finishes, and all of a sudden, some of the earlier finishes that I had, just, it almost looked like when you see an old movie or something like that. It just kind of looks a little different, it’s hard to put your finger on it.”
Namajunas is still just 32; on the reality fighting series, she was little more than a youngster, with a 2-1 record and coming off a loss to the aforementioned Pennington. The only fighter with less experience than “Thug” Rose was Angela Hill.
“It’s like, dang, I’ve been in this for a while. It’s cool. It’s cool because I still feel great, I have so much experience and knowledge and maturity now,” explained Namajunas. “But I still feel very physically great and if anything, I’m very good at- some fighters get to the point of sustaining a lot of damage and they never learn their lessons. They just keep doing the same thing. But if I have a little tweak here or there, I know how to learn from it and learn how to get better from it. And then I can heal up. I also take care of my body very well too. It’s kind of crazy to think— I’ve been doing something right.”
Doing something right has seen her earn a couple of wins back-to-back in her new home at flyweight. A win over Erin Blanchfield this Saturday at UFC Edmonton might put Rose Namajunas knocking at the door of a title shot, though even she admits that Manon Fiorot is probably next.
“That’s my intention, to really put on a good performance to where there’s no doubt that I could be next,” Namajunas said at one point on Wednesday. “But I still, I just kind of feel as if Manon deserves it next anyways, regardless of what I do.”
Still, she agreed, now is the perfect time for Namajunas to go on a run at another championship- still in her prime, and as healthy as ever. “It is the perfect time right now. That’s why I changed the divisions when I did,” she noted. “It would have been nice to change into the division as a champion, or maybe just be able leave the belt behind or whatever, vacate the title kind of a thing instead of coming off a loss. I guess in this way it’s kind of cool because I can actually climb the ranks, instead of just jump into a title shot right away.”
Namajunas was originally booked into a fight with Maycee Barber over the summer, only for Barber to pull out. A win over Tracy Cortez ensued. But it seems as if Namajunas might hesitate on rebooking the Barber fight due to her health concerns, and Blanchfield has been on her radar anyway.
“I’ve always had my eye on Erin, whenever she started her momentum and stuff in the UFC. Even when I was in strawweight, I thought she was a great competitor and somebody that, if I ever got the chance to face her, I’d be really excited about,” said Namajunas.
As for Barber, Namajunas wishes her well. “With Maycee, there’s a lot of ambiguity and a lot of questions, like, what’s going on? I still wish her health and wellness, and hopefully she can get back to things. It really sucks when you train specifically for a fight, and then it gets all the way down to it, and it doesn’t [happen], falls through.”
Watch the full UFC Edmonton media day appearance by Rose Namajunas above.
