Can Rose Namajunas find new life at 125? | UFC Paris
Conor McGregor’s imprint on MMA is still strong. While the idea of a double champion and changing weight classes is nothing new, its now looked differently when a fighter moves up. The next former champion to move up is former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas. She will make her flyweight debut at UFC Paris when she takes on Manon Fiorot in the co-main event. The move up has always been difficult and Namajunas is hoping she’s up to the challenge.
Rose Namajunas And Her Legacy Extended at UFC Paris
Rose Namajunas is already a legendary name in the sport. She originally captured the title against long-reigning Joanna Jedrzejczyk in 2017 with a first round knockout. Her return and first defense was against the former champion, a much closer contested bout. Namajunas took that by split decision.
Then her first reign as strawweight queen came to an abrupt end when she was slammed on her head by Jessica Andrade. While gruesome, Namajunas recovered and returned in a non-title rematch against Andrade. During her absence, Andrade got smoked by current champ, Weili Zhang. Namajunas rematched Andrade in 2020 and took home a split decision win that saw her return to a title shot.
That’s when Namajunas returned to glory. In the first round she knocked Zhang out with a spectacular high kick that dropped the jaws of nearly everyone. Rose Namajunas was a champion once more.
She then rematches Zhang, this time fighting to a close split decision that she won. Then at UFC 274, Namajunas laid an egg and did nothing against Carla Esparza, essentially giving away the belt for free. Esparza would go on to lose to Zhang in her first defense.
Now Namajunas looks for new challenges at UFC Paris. Fiorot is a talented fighter with an 11-1 record. But Fiorot lost that fight in her debut and is on an 11 fight win streak. Namajunas has a tough hill to climb at UFC Paris. But a win over the third ranked Fiorot would put her in line for a title shot alongside Erin Blanchfield.
Play close attention because Namajunas’ past accolades could see her leapfrog Blanchfield and put her next in line to challenge the winner of Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko’s rematch.
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