Women’s flyweights Natalia Silva and Rose Namajnuas, the latter a former UFC strawweight champ, faced off as the second fight in on the UFC 324 main card on Saturday.
Silva was the #2-ranked fighter in the division, and with Manon Fiorot, the only woman ranked ahead of her, losing to Valentina Shevchenko last year, the Brazilian was the front-runner for a title shot. “Thug” Rose, however, had the sort of name value that could see her jump right to a title opportunity, especially with a hypothetical match-up at the White House in June.
Namajunas looked like the quicker fighter early, practically bouncing on her feet. Silva fired a number of kicks, all of which missed. Through the first minute, little if anything either fighter had thrown actually landed. Silva nearly landed a shot clean off a caught kick, with Rose just pulling free in the nick of time. Namajunas then fired a kick of her own up high, which also missed. Namajunas did land an outside leg kick, and closing the distance, forced Silva to retreat. Rose’s right hand was looking like her best weapon after the first three minutes.
Silva also mixed in the odd low kick, as well as side kicks; despite a lot of feints and her well-known explosiveness, she still wasn’t landing too much at all. That changed towards the end of the round, but Namajunas’ movement continued to give her fits. A clinch came at the end of the round, but the pair stayed standing.
Namajunas was in-and-out early in the second, landing then fading back out of reach of Silva. The Brazilian continued to feint, but her offense was stymied: anything thrown seemed to hit air. Namajunas had a slight edge in strikes actually landed thanks to her speed, and the ex-champ was actually leading the dance, initiating most of the exchanges. In a clinch, the pair went down briefly roughly halfway into round two, but they scrambled back up immediately.
Back on the feet, however, Silva was able to take control, driving Rose into the fence. Namajunas was eventually able to reverse, cancelling that advantage out in a fight that continued to be extremely close. Moments later, “Thug” Rose had the takedown, perhaps the most significant development through nearly ten rounds of fight time.
Silva, without a solid submission available, tried to work back to the fence, while Namajunas looked for space to land a few strikes. While Rose couldn’t find room to land anything heavy, she got a few short shots in, and had over a minute of top time.
Round three of an extremely close fight opened with a much higher, downright scrappy pace. Silva started taking it to Namajunas, something she had not done through the first ten minutes. A spinning back kick to the body sent Namajunas retreating. Multiple kicks from Silva landed to the legs. Namajunas was almost in pure defensive mode, and needed to reset.
Silva was looking much lighter on her feet in the third. Where this Natalia Silva was through the opening ten minutes was a big question, and should she lose on the scorecards, she would have only herself to blame for the slow start. Silva was able to stuff a late Namajunas takedown, then landed her own off a throw. That put her in half guard with just over 30 seconds to go. With Rose taking round two and Silva winning the third, the fight would essentially come down to the low-action opening frame.
That, at least according to the judges, was won by Natalia Silva. A result that was not at all popular with the Las Vegas crowd.
Official Result: Natalia Silva def. Rose Namajunas by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
