Rose Namajunas hasn’t fought three times in the same calendar year since her first year as a professional, back before she burst onto the biggest stage in the sport by tearing through the competition to reach the finals on Season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter and face off with Carla Esparza in the inaugural UFC strawweight title fight.
In 2013, she was just getting started — a 20-year-old chasing her dreams and trying to make waves as the women’s side of the sport really started to gain a place in the spotlight. Now, more than a decade later, as she readies to make her third appearance of 2024 opposite Erin Blanchfield in Edmonton on Nov. 2 at Rogers Place, the two-time strawweigtht titleholder is still chasing greatness, but approaching things from a very different position.
“Man… I don’t know!” Namajunas told Sportsnet with a laugh when asked what has led to her uptick in activity this year. “I think a lot of life stuff, my faith has gotten so strong that I think God is just kind of making a way for me now.
“I had wanted to be more active in the past, things would always just kind of get in the way, but I’m healthy, life circumstances are very healthy for me, relationships — my family and friends — are just in a good place. My training is going really well, I like what I’m doing, so everything is just kind of clicking.
“I think it’s overall gratitude for the spot that I’m in right now because I can actually enjoy this journey a little more,” she added. “I think a lot of fighters towards the end of their careers get a little jaded or bitter; distractions and things come in. So I’m really grateful to be in a spot where I can actually enjoy this part.”
Despite only turning 32 at the end of June, Namajunas has stated in the past that she knows she has fewer fights in front of her than she does behind her, which is the kind of situation that can make athletes start pressing a little more as they look at what they have and haven’t accomplished, and how they will be judged and remembered as a result.
But Namajunas’ legacy is already intact regardless of what happens over the last few years of her career.
She won the strawweight title for the first time by ending the reign of Joanna Jedrzejczyk in spectacular fashion, stopping the Polish standout in the first round of the UFC 217 clash at Madison Square Garden before out-hustling her in an immediate rematch five months later to affirm her standing as the new queen of the division.
After losing her title to Jessica Andrade, Namajunas avenged that defeat in a three-round battle with the Brazilian powerhouse, then claimed the strawweight title for a second time with a brilliant head kick knockout win over Zhang Weili just 78 seconds into their clash at UFC 261. And just as she did with “Joanna Champion,” Namajuas cemented her standing atop the division by winning the rematch as well.
Whenever she opts to hang up her gloves, “Thug Rose” will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, and knowing that she’s already had an incredible career rich with achievements few can match allows her to continue forward in her pursuit of the flyweight title without the pressure of trying to “finally win the big one” hanging over her head.
“It is. It really is. That is so much added pressure when you have those things looming over your head,” Namajunas said in regards to having already established her legacy and the ease it brings. “It’s more of a positive experience now because it’s like, ‘If I don’t (win the flyweight title), I achieved a lot, but if I do, that’s gonna be even more amazing.’”
Make no mistake about it, though — that is still the goal, and a big part of the reason why she’s making another quick turnaround to face off with Blanchfield in “The City of Champions” later this year.
“I’m healthy and I’m really on a mission to get this belt, become a two-division champion, so I know that being active is a part of that,” she said when asked about jumping right back into the fray after having dispatched Tracy Cortez in a “home game” in Denver back in July.
“Had the fight been against Maycee Barber and I won, then maybe I would be closer to a title shot, but I still think Manon (Fiorot) would be ahead of me anyways. The fact that it was against Tracy — not to take anything away from her — but she’s lower in the rankings, so I just want to get another win, especially against a girl like Erin Blanchfield, who is No. 3 (in the rankings).”
Her performance against Cortez in Denver was the best of her current three-fight run in the flyweight division — a unanimous decision victory over a game opponent where she was able to show a little more of what she’d been working on in the gym, which is something she felt was lacking in her first start of the year in March against Amanda Ribas.
Buoyed by the partisan crowd in her adopted hometown and the availability of her grandmother’s cooking all week, Namajunas said she felt the same kind of energy walking to the Octagon that evening as she typically does on pay-per-view nights, which added to it being a tremendous night overall.
“I got goosebumps walking out and that usually only happens on pay-per-view cards and things,” she said, her voice carrying an excited, happy tone as she reflected on the experience. “It was great energy and the performance was great too. There were still things to improve on — like it would have been nice if when I dropped her I would have finished her — but it’s good to get that experience of going five rounds as well.”
While she enjoyed the experience of competing at home and the comforts doing so afforded her in the summer, Namajunas is excited to get back on the road and compete in Edmonton later this year, noting that the pairing between her and Blanchfield feels like a perfect fit for a fight card in the typically frigid Alberta city.
“The leaves are changing already here, so it’s like, ‘Here we go; winter’s coming!’” she said with a laugh when asked about competing in a winter environment not unlike the one she experienced in her hometown of Milwaukee for many years before relocating to Denver. “It’s kind of fitting too — Erin’s got that ice-cold demeanour and I do myself as well, so I think it’s gonna be a battle in ‘Ice Land.’”
Though the temperature outside on Fight Night is sure to be right around freezing (or colder), the action in the Octagon is guaranteed to be white-hot, as both women enter with something to prove.
With Valentina Shevchenko back atop the flyweight division after wrapping up her trilogy with Alexa Grasso last weekend at Noche UFC, the French standout Fiorot is assumed to be next in line to challenge for the title, leaving Namajunas in a pack alongside Grasso, Blanchfield, and Barber, who she was originally scheduled to face in July before the surging Dana White’s Contender Series grad was forced to withdraw, jockeying for position in the championship chase.
And while Namajunas comes in on a two-fight winning streak, Blanchfield is looking to get things moving in the right direction against after suffering her first UFC loss to Fiorot earlier this year in Atlantic City.
“Her determination,” Namajunas said immediately when asked about the parts of Blanchfield’s game that stand out to her. “She doesn’t quit! She’s really tough and I would say she has had a lot of great performances. Obviously her last one, she didn’t win, and the one before that wasn’t as dominant as some of her previous performances, but when she first came on the scene, even though I was a strawweight at the time, I was very impressed with her; how she has a stone-cold demeanour and would go out there, pressure people, make people quit on themselves.
“Now that she’s gone up in the rankings, fights get a little tougher, but she still shows a lot of grit and determination, she still has that toughness, and her grappling prowess is something we’re looking to challenge and nullify. But we’re also looking to put these hands on her so that way it doesn’t even get to that point.”
Should that come to pass, “Thug Rose” should end the year right where she wants to be.
“If I go out there and have a finish or a dominant performance — or even just a win — I think that will really make the case for being next. That’s my goal and that’s my plan.”