UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas is expecting to face Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Mackenzie Dern sometime in the near future.
The biggest win of UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, so far, would still be her first round TKO win over Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217 last November. But throughout her career, “Thug Rose” won most of her fights via submission.
A brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the 25-year-old Namajunas is currently scouring through the line of contenders at the UFC’s 115-pound division. One name that caught her attention is multiple-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gold medalist Mackenzie Dern.
During her recent guest appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, Namajunas talked a little bit more about the possibility of fighting Dern sometime in the near future.
“Other than the weight issue, I thought she looked great,” Namajunas said (transcript via MMA Mania). “That is something, I’ve always wanted to test my jiu-jitsu against, that would be awesome, I would like to face her. But, she just has to get her sh-t together and that may be down the road.”
“She beat Gabi Garcia in a jiu-jitsu match, so that would be awesome,” Rose continued. “And she can obviously strike a little bit. She has that heavy first step, that a wrestler has sometimes that good right hand.”
“You can tell she has that style developing. So it will be interesting to see if she can fix her issues and maybe she can be a future contender.”
Dern came in eight pounds over the strawweight limit during her UFC 224 fight against Amanda Bobby Cooper, which she had received heavy criticism for. She did end up winning via first-round submission, as she keeps an unblemished win-loss slate of 7-0, with four wins via submission.