At UFC 249, Rose Namajunas will face the woman who defeated her for the UFC Strawweight title, Jessica Andrade.
Following her title bout at UFC 237, Namajunas was dealing with personal issues that prevented her from making a return to the octagon; however, many pegged her as the next challenger for the Strawweight title upon her return.
Surprisingly, Namajunas won’t be challenging for the 115-pound belt, and the former UFC Strawweight Champion reveals on the
“UFC Unfiltered” podcast why she turned down the opportunity to face Zhang Weili at UFC 248 (Transcript courtesy of MMA Junkie):
“I think everyone else felt the same way, too,” Namajunas said. “I was even offered Weili at the time, but I just – at the time I was still dealing with a lot of my own (things), just getting my head right, and I hired a mental coach that’s helping me do a lot of different things. And so there was a lot of work that needed to be done.
“I wasn’t ready for that just yet. I didn’t even really know if I wanted to fight at that time anymore, just because I wanted to make sure that this is something that I wanted to do and I wasn’t just like, ‘Let’s have another fight just because I’m good at it.'”
Namajunas is ready to avenge her loss to Andrade back in May 2019, as the defeat was a tough pillow to swallow; however, it was an important lesson for the former champion to learn:
“It was definitely one of my harder losses that I’ve dealt with,” Namajunas said.
“I think the thing is, I knew exactly – it was easier in the sense that I knew exactly all of the things that I did wrong. The harder part is taking responsibility for myself, and yeah, maybe situations around me that I couldn’t control could have been better. But I could have taken control over a lot more things in my life. So ultimately, taking that responsibility is the hardest part out of everything.”
Check out the full interview where Namajunas talks about avoiding a severe injury and so much more regarding her MMA career.