Rose Namajunas vs Amanda Ribas added to UFC Fight Night 240
It appears former two-time UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas (11-6) has her next bout lined up, as she’s slated to headline UFC Fight Night 240 opposing no. 9 ranked flyweight contender Amanda Ribas (13-4).
UFC FN 240 is to go down on March 23, 2024, live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
‘Thug Rose’ will remain at 125 lbs for this contest, moving up in her most recent appearance against no. 3 ranked Manon Fiorot in September, a losing effort we saw her suffer a hand injury in.
Namajunas is one of the better female mixed martial artists we’ve ever had the pleasure of watching, though her consistency has certainly not been there over the years.
Following a 3-0 run on The Ultimate Fighter 20 with three submission victories, everyone was picking her to become the season winner, and first ever UFC strawweight champion at just 22 years of age with a professional record of 2-1.
She’d face 9-2 Carla Esparza in the finals, who’d also gone 3-0 on the show, and was completely mauled by the superior wrestler, eventually being submitted (rear naked choke) in round three.
Namajunas would rattle off three-straight wins following this defeat, beating Angela Hill (rear naked choke), Paige VanZant (rear naked choke), and Tecia Torres (UD), before losing a narrow contest to Karolina Kowalkiewicz (SD).
Next would come another submission finish, this one over Michelle Waterson (rear naked choke), and Namajunas was fighting for the title against then longtime champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, a fight absolutely no one gave her a chance in hell of winning.
Well, she shocked the world that night, knocking out the former kickboxing champion in the opening round to claim the UFC strawweight title, and defending it (UD) in their immediate rematch.
Namajunas would next face Jessica Andrade, a fight she was looking better than ever in up until she was picked up and slammed on her head, KO’ing her on the spot midway through round two. Namajunas would take 14 months off before rematching Andrade, who’d since lost the belt to Weili Zhang, winning the rematch via split decision.
Zhang would then fall to Namajunas, losing her title via first round KO, and just like her first title win, Namajunas defend it in the immediate rematch (SD) via five-round decision.
Next came a rematch with Carla Esparza, who came into the bout on a five-fight win streak, and this was a very disappointing fight for merely everyone involved, as well as everyone that watched.
You could tell their first fight got into Namajunas’ head, who did everything in her power to not lose, rather than to win. She refused to engage in fear of being taken down, and she’d lose her title via split decision in one of, if not the worst fight in UFC history.
This led up to her flyweight debut in September, where she lost to Manon Fiorot (UD).
Amanda Ribas on the other hand would win her first four UFC bouts over the likes of Emily Whitmire (rear naked choke), Mackenzie Dern (UD), Randa Markos (UD), and Paige VanZant (armbar), before going 3-3 over her last six, trading wins and losses since with wins over Virna Jandiroba (UD), Viviane Araujo (UD), and Luana Pinheiro (UD), while losing to Marina Rodriguez (TKO), Katlyn Chookagian (UD), and Maycee Barber (TKO).
Who comes out of this flyweight encounter going down at UFC Fight Night 240 the victor?
If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to share it on social media!
