UFC Strawweight Champion Rose Namajunas has detailed why she isn’t totally satisfied with her second victory over Weili Zhang.
Namajunas put her gold on the line against Zhang in the co-main event of UFC 268 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. Back in April, Namajunas finished Zhang with a head kick to regain the 115-pound gold. In the first title defense of her second reign, Rose took the split nod.
Rose Namajunas Still Peeved Over Performance
Despite taking a second victory over Zhang, Rose Namajunas told Daniel Cormier on The DC Check-In that there’s still some things to work on.
“I knew there was things that I did good in the fight, during, and whatnot. I definitely felt like I did just enough to win but I knew that I could’ve did so much better. I knew instantly like [sighs] what I did wrong and whatnot. Ultimately, after watching it I was very happy with myself too. Still, once again still irritated with the things that I did wrong because I trained so hard not to do those things but whatever.”
Rose Talks Differences Between Zhang Rematch & Loss To Andrade
Namajunas then talked about the disappointments of her win over Zhang and the loss in her first fight with Jessica Andrade. “Thug” Rose said pretty much everything that could go wrong against Andrade did.
“The biggest difference between this fight and say my reaction to that other fight in Brazil when I lost, I wasn’t surprised by the result when I lost. I didn’t prepare properly. I knew instantly when it happened I was like, ‘Yep’ I knew 10 things that went wrong.”
Namajunas ended up avenging her loss to Andrade in their rematch. The win got Namajunas the title fight with Zhang.
Slippery Canvas Impacted Rose vs. Zhang 2
Fans took notice of the slippery canvas throughout the UFC 268 card. Namajunas said she was well aware of the issue.
“The canvas was super slippery but those are just different things. There’s so many variables. I think it was either the second or third round, I can’t remember where it was where it looked like she rocked me but she didn’t. And I remember that too cause I thought I threw a punch and I felt like her punch come right here [points to her arm]. And you could see she closes her eyes and lands it, and it feels like she landed but she didn’t see. When it hit me I kinda stumbled backwards but it looked like I was rocked.”
Fight fans now await to see what’s next for Rose Namajunas. While Carla Esparza seems to be the logical choice, UFC President Dana White has “other options” in mind.
