Las Vegas — Rose Namajunas is a former strawweight champion looking to work her way to a title shot in a second weight class. A veteran of numerous big fight cards, “Thug Rose” is used to seeing them as just another day at the office— but that might be changing.
Namajunas faces Natalia Silva at UFC 324 this Saturday in Las Vegas, and is appreciative of the caliber of card she’s been placed on. “Now, because I’ve done it so many times and I’ve been here for so long, I’m just cherishing the memories a little bit more. I’m paying attention to it a little bit more,” said Namajunas (14-7), speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “Every time that there’s other great fighters on the card, it just kind of builds the energy. We all kind of feed off each other too. So it’s great.”
These days, what Namajunas is feeling for the sort of opportunities she’s faced with on Saturday is “definitely gratitude,” she added. “I know that this isn’t forever, I know that life goes by quickly and this is a blessing. The fact that I even just woke up today and was able to breathe air is a blessing from God. The fact that I can be here and just do what I love, and just give something that I’ve been given to everybody else, and to just try to do my best, it’s hard to put into words how grateful I am.”
In the past, Namajunas had some fear of the eyeballs on her. Now, “not that I’m not scared or uncomfortable or nervous or anything like that, but I’m just more accustomed to it.”
Should Namajunas notch the W at UFC 324, she’ll have knocked off one of the top contenders in the women’s flyweight division. With a June victory over Miranda Maverick, it might just be enough to shoot her to the front of the line for champ Valentina Shevchenko. With the possibility of a fight at the White House looming.
Namajunas would be thrilled with it, but isn’t getting too stuck on the idea either. “If that doesn’t happen, I’m not going to be like ‘aww man,’ but obviously that would be so super crazy, super weird, super I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened. For some reason I get the weird feeling that that could very well happen. But who knows- only god knows.”
When it comes to Silva, meanwhile, there’s been a question as to which is more dangerous: her skill, or her explosiveness.
“They’re kind of neck-and-neck I feel like,” Namajunas told Cageside Press on Wednesday. “I would say her explosiveness. I think certain things she gets away with because she is so fast and she is so explosive. But I mean her skill is definitely right there. So I’m looking to expose that.”
“She never seems to get tired, maybe little tendencies here and there you might see over time, but she just looks so fluid all the time and so in the zone. I’m really looking to try to take her out of that and get her out of character.”
Watch the full UFC 324 media day appearance by Rose Namajunas above.
