Rose Namajunas is slowly making her mark as a flyweight.
The former strawweight champion earned her second victory in the 125-pound division on Saturday night, defeating Tracy Cortez via unanimous decision in the main event of UFC on ESPN 59 at Ball Arena in Denver. Namajunas knocked Cortez down early and then blitzed the rest of the way, confusing her last-minute opponent with a mix of strikes and takedowns.
“Obviously I’m happy, firstly, that I was pretty injury-free, secondly, that I won, and thirdly, I feel like it was a very exciting fight,” Namajunas said in her post-fight press conference. “Obviously, I wanted to finish it. It’s been a long time since I’ve finished someone, since like 2020.” [2021]
Or something? I felt like I was at least pretty close, so I dropped her at first. Overall I’m very happy with it.”
Cortez, who replaced Macy Barber, was a tenacious opponent and showed some of her best moments towards the end of the bout, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the veteran former champion who always had an answer for every attack from her opponent.
“I knew she was a really tough opponent. I think she was a little bit better than I thought she would be,” Namajunas said. “But at the same time, I felt her moments of hope and pressure and trying to push herself. I’d come back with something and she’d be a little depressed. She’d pick herself up again and do something else.” [I was]
“I was a little surprised at her ability to keep trying and keep going after being knocked down, but I knew she had a lot of passion.”
Namajunas attempted five takedowns in the bout and was successful in all three, giving her the advantage in areas where Cortes was expected to have the advantage.
“I knew she was really good at getting up after being taken down in a match, so it was a great result,” Namajunas said. “I knew her wrestling was really good offensively, but I knew she would wrestle more. I didn’t want to hold her down too much, but I didn’t want to waste energy trying to hold her down. It actually went really well. I was able to stay in mount for a long time. I need to work on my finishing shots on top a bit more, but overall I’m very happy.”
Namajunas started off at flyweight with a loss to Manon Fiorot, but bounced back with consecutive wins over Cortez and Amanda Rivas. The Colorado-based fighter said it took her a while to find her footing at 125 pounds. She also battled some injuries, but recovered over time.
“In my last fight, at flyweight, after I put on some muscle, I felt like I was a little sluggish going into the fight,” Namajunas said. “It turned out I had partially torn both shoulders going into the fight. It just took time…Everything I’ve been training up until now has been like building blocks. I had to build momentum to get to this point. My shoulders are feeling really good. My right shoulder still hurts a little bit at times. It has to heal completely and then I think it will get better. I still have a lot of improvement to make.”
In a post-fight interview, Namajunas said she would be interested in competing for the women’s version of the BMF title, but admitted it wasn’t something she was particularly serious about.
“Actually, I was just joking,” Namajunas said. “Joanna
[Jedrzejczyk] I said I’ll be back for the women’s BMF [title
fight]It was just a joke. I love her. I think I was just joking. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
For Namajunas, the allure of the UFC flyweight title far outweighs the possibility of a BMF fight.
“Oh, the flyweight division. Rose Namajunas ‘Just Joking’ About BMF Fight, Focused on Winning Flyweight Belt “Of course,” she said. “I think BMF will be fun. But, yeah, give us the champion.”
Namajunas is open to a rematch with Barber, who withdrew from the bout due to health concerns, but it’s not necessarily a priority.
“I hope she gets better. I don’t know what her health situation is,” Namajunas said. “I just wish her well. Maybe when she’s feeling better we can talk about it. At the end of the day, I’m just thinking positively right now.”
