Attempting to become a two-time UFC strawweight champion this weekend in the co-main event of UFC 261, Rose Namajunas has what appears to be a relatively straightforward game plan to dethrone the so-far promotional-perfect, Zhang Weili.
Returning to the Octagon for the first time since July of last year, Namajunas earned her championship outing against Weili via a close split decision victory over two-time foe, fellow former gold holder, Jessica Andrade — whom she shares the UFC 261 card with.
Finding herself in the spotlight recently, Namajunas controversially questioned if Weili could give a transparent, unbiased opinion on the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) — quoting a historical anti-communist slogan ahead of the matchup; “better dead than red“.
Prior to her booking against Weili, Namajunas appeared to be involved in some negotiation issues with the UFC, with the promotion’s president, Dana White explaining how Namajunas wasn’t interested in becoming a champion again — something which she denied, detailing how White isn’t always truthful with the media.
“I mean, of course, it’s not accurate, you know,” Namajunas said. “I mean, it’s just obviously, there’s always two sides to every story. In my opinion, I’ve been thinking about fighting (Zhang) Weili ever since I lost the belt and she became the champion. So ever since she — especially since she beat Joanna (Jedrzejczyk) this is something that — it even further increased my motivation to want to fight her, ’cause she proved something that not a lot of people can do.“
“Only me — myself and Valentina (Shevchenko) could beat Joanna so,” Namajunas explained. “So we all know Dana (White) says things in the media, and it turns out to be not true and I think it was just one of those scenarios. And we still haven’t really talked about it since, but here we are.“
Speaking with ESPN MMA reporter, Ariel Helwani ahead of the title challenge, Namajunas laid out her plans on how to overcome Weili — involving a submission heavy approach.
“Pretty same as I always kind of envision all of my fights,” Namajunas said. “Go in there, punch their face, take their back and choke them out. That’s my game plan every time going in there. It manifests a little differently each time but that’s gonna be my goal.“
While Namajunas enters the tie off the back of a split judging win over common-foe, Andrade, Weili will attempt to lodge her second successful strawweight title defence following arguably the greatest fight in the history of female mixed martial arts, in the form of the 2020 Fight of the Year decision win over former champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk.