Rose Namajunas was in the house for UFC Denver and the UFC strawweight champion had good news for fans awaiting her return to the Octagon. While she didn’t confirm a date or opponent for her next title defense, she did set a timeline and share who she thought deserved the next go at her belt.
”I like fighting in spring and fall, I think that’s a good time for me,” Namajunas said (video via MMA Fighting). “So that’s kind of what I’ve expressed already so we’ll see how things happen.”
“I don’t see how anybody else other than Andrade would make sense,” she continued. “I know she wants to stay active, and if she wants to have another fight until I’m ready, then that’s cool. But if not I’d love to have the chance at her.”
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While Namajunas has been largely out of the headlines since her second win over Joanna Jedrzejczyk in April, she made it clear that she’s been keeping an eye on her division.
”Andrade definitely shook things up,” she said. “Joanna got back in the winning streak of things, so she’s going up, so that’s kind of interesting as well. I don’t know, I think other than that, I guess Tatiana [Suarez], she’s obviously starting to make some noise and stuff like that. But at the moment, all I’m focused on is just being a better martial artist, becoming a better athlete, and just one day at a time.”
As for what she’s been up to over the past seven months?
“Right now I’m kinda just getting back into strength and conditioning, conditioning my body, not really taking impact to the head or anything like that. Just working on being a better athlete and just trying to manage everything else in my life. And then after the holidays I think we could start talking about a fight.”
”I’m doing a lot of film study and lots of mental work right now, so yeah. This thing-” she finished, pointing at her head. “-is really powerful, so I’m using it.”