Rose Namajunas looks to make it three in a row this weekend when she returns in the co-main event of the UFC’s visit to Edmonton. The #5-ranked contender will take on one of the flyweight division’s most exciting talents in Erin Blanchfield who holds the #3-spot. With Blanchfield looking to rebound from the first loss […]
Rose Namajunas looks to make it three in a row this weekend when she returns in the co-main event of the UFC’s visit to Edmonton. The #5-ranked contender will take on one of the flyweight division’s most exciting talents in Erin Blanchfield who holds the #3-spot.
With Blanchfield looking to rebound from the first loss of her UFC career last time out and Namajunas coming off of wins over Amanda Ribas and Tracy Cortez, there are big stakes here but not for anything that “Thug” Rose believes will happen in the near future.
On her flyweight debut in September last year, the former two-time strawweight champion was beaten by Manon Fiorot who then went on to dominate Blanchfield this past March. Despite her seven-fight win streak against some of the top names in the division, the French fighter is still yet to receive her title shot.
That’s due to the trilogy of fights between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko that recently wrapped up at UFC 306 where Shevchenko regained the top spot. In a recent interview with CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri, Namajunas said that even if she beats Blanchfield in impressive fashion this Saturday, she feels it would be wrong for her to get a shot at the belt before Fiorot.
“I would still feel even with a good performance, well we could cross that bridge when get to it, but I feel like I’d still feel bad for some reason if I jumped her but you know, that’s just kind of, I don’t know. I am a person of integrity so I do feel like she deserves to be next in line. She’s been kind of waiting and although I do know that like I don’t know where her head is at, if she’s like saying no to offers than that’s not a thing to do either. Like if the UFC wants her to fight again then she should do that but ultimately, the UFC is kind of the judge of that and it’s up to me to have a really good performance as well to make that case.”
Contingency plans are in place for at least one of the championship fights set for Noche UFC at the Sphere, should there be a late-notice withdrawal. The organization will stage its second celebration of Mexican Independence Day on September 14 following the success of the inaugural event in 2023. Las Vegas will once again play […]
Contingency plans are in place for at least one of the championship fights set for Noche UFC at the Sphere, should there be a late-notice withdrawal.
The organization will stage its second celebration of Mexican Independence Day on September 14 following the success of the inaugural event in 2023. Las Vegas will once again play host, but the Octagon will be in extremely different surroundings.
Tasked with delivering fireworks inside the cage will be the four headliners, who will look to exit the Sphere with gold in their possession. That’s bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili in the main event, while flyweight queen Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko are set to complete their trilogy in the co-headliner.
Injuries and illness forcing late-notice cancellations is never ideal, not least for an event of this magnitude. With that in mind, many have suggested that backups will likely be sought for the two bouts at the top of the lineup.
And by the sounds of things, one is locked in…
Fiorot Expected To Serve As Backup For Grasso vs. Shevchenko 3
During a recent interview with Boxemag, coach Aldric Cassata claimed that the #2-ranked Manon Fiorot has been “officially” confirmed as the backup fighter for Grasso vs. Shevchenko 3 on Sept. 14.
Should her services not be required on fight night after making championship weight, the trainer suggested “The Beast” will have the chance to cash in on her earned title shot by facing the winner either at the end of this year or early 2025.
“Manon is officially backup for the belt; she will be in Vegas,” Cassata said (h/t MMA Mania). “If there is no injury (to Grasso or Shevchenko), I think the (title fight) will be at the end of the year or the beginning of next year.”
Fiorot put herself in prime position for a first championship opportunity on MMA’s biggest stage by getting the better of the highly regarded Erin Blanchfield in the main event of the Atlantic City-held UFC Fight Night this past March.
That result moved the Frenchwoman to a 7-0 record in the UFC, following decision triumphs over the likes of Tabatha Ricci, Mayra Bueno Silva, Katlyn Cerminara, and Rose Namajunas.
It remains to be seen whether Fiorot will need to don the custom, Mexico-inspired fight kits to compete at the Sphere this fall. If not, it would appear that the Sept. 14 victor already has their next opponent set.
Manon Fiorot has two tough options after Saturday: Wait for a shot, or risk her contender position in another fight.
Manon Fiorot was overjoyed on Saturday night, and how could she not be? She put together an incredibly dominant performance against one of the top talents at flyweight, making her the biggest name at 125 pounds who has never fought for a title.
While Fiorot is riding high after her victory over Erin Blanchfield, that happiness might soon turn into frustration. The 34-year-old French talent is one of the most qualified names for a flyweight title shot, but it’s unclear when that opportunity will ever arrive.
Generous estimates have placed a potential fight against the flyweight champ around early 2025. Yes, seriously. The clogged-up timeline of the flyweight title picture in the division has put Manon Fiorot—and the UFC—in a tough position: Do they bench the French contender for what could be nine or more months, or do they make her defend her contender spot in another high-profile fight? Let’s assume the role of the UFC and Manon Fiorot and figure out what to do next.
Why The Wait?
Before we get into Fiorot’s future, it’s worth highlighting why Fiorot would have to wait so long for a title shot. Just recently, UFC made the decision that current champ Alexa Grasso and former titleholder Valentina Shevchenko will face off in a trilogy bout. That’s all fine and good, but there’s a catch: They’ll meet after coaching the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.
The show is scheduled to begin in early June and likely run for 12 weeks. That puts a potential third fight between Grasso and Shevchenko in September at the earliest, matching them up around a year after they previously met.
It’s unclear how much time off the winning fighter will need afterward. It could be a quick turnaround or a long layoff. But if we just assume it will be around three months, that puts Manon Fiorot either on the last card of 2024 or somewhere next year.
Could the UFC be blamed? It’s possible, but also hard to tell. Both Shevchenko and Grasso underwent hand surgery last fall after their UFC Noche bout. We don’t know much about if they are fully healed up, or if the delay in their fight is solely due to The Ultimate Fighter. While there’s a chance that UFC is entirely to blame for the fight’s delay, it’s worth remembering that there are other possibilities on the table as well.
As demonstrated by last season—coached by Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler—you don’t need a champion and challenger in the mentor role. You can just grab any two notable UFC fighters and put them on the show, making the decision to use Grasso and Shevchenko potentially questionable.
If the fight is truly being shelved solely due to the reality TV show, it’s a bad look on the UFC. Dayne Fox perfectly illuminated this point in an article earlier this week: “It appears the UFC would rather kill any potential momentum for a relic of the past,” he wrote.
The reason for the hold-up at flyweight is hard to determine. But it has been decided and is final. It’s now time to discuss what to do next.
Should Manon Fiorot Sit Out?
A cautionary tale from the past | Mandatory Credit: Per Haljestam-USA TODAY Sports
Fiorot made it clear on Saturday night that she wants a title fight next: “I’m ready no matter what, I want my title shot,” she said through an interpreter. But she’ll need to be on the sidelines for a while if that’s the case.
We have seen scenarios in the past where an expected challenger lost out on a fight by staying active. When Shevchenko pulled out of her June 2020 booking against Joanne Wood due to injury, Wood fought Jennifer Maia two months later. A first-round submission win went the way of Maia and, you guessed it, she ended up getting that fight against Shevchenko instead of Wood.
It’s not completely easy to compare the previous case to Fiorot’s position. Fiorot will have an even longer wait than what Wood was up against, and she is certainly also more qualified in this scenario as well. While Manon Fiorot might have to sit out for a long time, there’s a really strong case for her putting her patience to the test and getting her rightful shot against the champ.
It’s hard to disagree with the decision for Fiorot to wait if that’s what she ends up doing, but she might also want to fight. It wouldn’t be wild if Fiorot decided to fight again. It’s a payday, after all. Don’t compete? Don’t get paid. That alone is incentive for some to got another matchup as soon as possible. We know that other people would take another fight if in Manon Fiorot’s position. If Erin Blanchfield were to win on Saturday, we would be looking at a situation where she would likely be competing again before the flyweight title fight, as outlined in a recent interview.
If She Were To Fight…
At the end of the day, I want Fiorot to choose her fate. I only want to see Fiorot in another fight if she truly wants to. Considering how many high-stakes bouts she has won in the division, it’s simply unfair at the moment to insist that she needs to defend her position. It’s not her fault that the title picture is moving so slowly. But let’s say she does want to, what should they do?
I would like to see Fiorot rewarded with an interim title bout if she does fight again before an opportunity at either Shevchenko or Grasso. If she fought fourth-ranked Maycee Barber for the belt, I wouldn’t be against that. Barber, quite honestly, isn’t as qualified as Fiorot or even Blanchfield. While she has beaten names like Katlyn Cerminara and Jessica Eye, it feels like her record just isn’t as strong. But after Blanchfield’s loss on Saturday, a fight between Barber and Manon Fiorot is the new top fight to make outside of the main title picture. If Manon Fiorot wants to fight again, that’s the best match you can make for her.
Fiorot deserves a big matchup next, even if she can’t get a shot at the undisputed title. An interim belt, even though it doesn’t guarantee anything per se, would make the statement that she is undoubtedly who should be facing the top name next. Any other potential matchup for Manon Fiorot would simply be giving her a lower-ranked talent to keep her busy.
The Verdict?
The wait may be long, and the timeline is uncertain. But as it stands right now, it feels like the right move for Manon Fiorot, and the right decision to make for the UFC is to let the French contender wait and then eventually be rewarded the fight she undoubtedly deserves. There are certainly options for her if she wants to stay active, but those opportunities are high-risk. She has done more than enough for a shot, and definitely more than some title challengers from the era where Shevchenko was knocking down two names a year. The wait currently seems worthwhile for Fiorot.
UFC should realize that Manon Fiorot as a title challenger can provide for another big event in France. The MMA market is red hot in the country, as demonstrated by the Cedric Doumbe-headlined PFL card recently. They can try to push into the market the same way they did with a Ciryl Gane title campaign a couple of years back. If Manon Fiorot is willing to wait and UFC is interested in keeping her in a contender position, this feels like it could be a win for all parties involved.
There are so many ways that this could go. A year from now, Manon Fiorot might be the UFC flyweight champion. Or, she might be out of the title picture after losing a fight she took to stay active. There’s also a possibility that she could still be waiting for her shot against the top of the weight class. It’s challenging currently to figure out what path is the right one for her to take. We’ve predicted what might be the best idea, and we’ll soon see if that was the right choice.
Manon Fiorot kept her ‘O’ inside the Octagon intact with a decisive unanimous decision victory over rising contender Erin…
Manon Fiorot kept her ‘O’ inside the Octagon intact with a decisive unanimous decision victory over rising contender Erin Blanchfield in the UFC Atlantic City headliner.
Fiorot found herself in a bit of trouble in the opening round as she went for an early takedown and ended up in a tight guillotine attempt. Despite Blanchfield’s best effort to squeeze out an early win, ‘The Beast’ was able to fight her way out of danger. From there, it was all Fiorot as her distance management stifled much of Blanchfield’s offense throughout the five-round affair.
Blanchfield attempted to pick up the pace in the fourth and even landed a big head kick in the fifth, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to secure a win over the No. 3 ranked contender.
Official Result: Manon Fiorot def. Erin Blanchfield via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
Check Out Highlights from erin Blanchfield vs. manon fiorot at UFC Atlantic City:
Manon Fiorot kept her ‘O’ inside the Octagon intact with a decisive unanimous decision victory over rising contender Erin…
Manon Fiorot kept her ‘O’ inside the Octagon intact with a decisive unanimous decision victory over rising contender Erin Blanchfield in the UFC Atlantic City headliner.
Fiorot found herself in a bit of trouble in the opening round as she went for an early takedown and ended up in a tight guillotine attempt. Despite Blanchfield’s best effort to squeeze out an early win, ‘The Beast’ was able to fight her way out of danger. From there, it was all Fiorot as her distance management stifled much of Blanchfield’s offense throughout the five-round affair.
Blanchfield attempted to pick up the pace in the fourth and even landed a big head kick in the fifth, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to secure a win over the No. 3 ranked contender.
Official Result: Manon Fiorot def. Erin Blanchfield via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
Check Out Highlights from erin Blanchfield vs. manon fiorot at UFC Atlantic City:
‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas‘ move to flyweight has been heavily criticized by a plethora of fighters and fans. You can now add former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson to that ever-growing list. Despite capturing the strawweight title on two separate occasions and owning two wins over the division’s current queen, Zhang Weili, Rose Namajunas opted to […]
‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas‘ move to flyweight has been heavily criticized by a plethora of fighters and fans. You can now add former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson to that ever-growing list.
Despite capturing the strawweight title on two separate occasions and owning two wins over the division’s current queen, Zhang Weili, Rose Namajunas opted to move from 115 to 125 for her long-awaited return at UFC Paris on Saturday. She immediately jumped into the flyweight fire, taking on No. 2 ranked contender Manon Fiorot in the co-main event of the evening.
Namajunas came up short, suffering a unanimous decision defeat with many suggesting that the sheer size difference between the two women played the biggest factor.
“I thought Fiorot was just the bigger fighter and all of her shots had a lot more impact on Rose,” Thomson said on his Weighing In podcast. “I feel like Rose Namajunas is sabotaging her career. Like, what are you doing? She is so talented, and you are considered to be one of the best in the 115-pound division. Why are you going up?
“Maybe it was for one fight — I hope you go back down,” he continued. “You could be the champ again. I mean, if you wanna get motivated, stay motivated, whatever it is. I just feel like she’s sabotaging herself. She doesn’t know how to handle this success or she just doesn’t want to have success around her” (h/t MMA Mania).
Namajunas Snaps Back at Manon Fiorot’s Post-Fight Comments
Rose Namajunas’ UFC Paris opponent, Manon Fiorot, echoed similar sentiments during her post-fight interview.
“I’m pretty sure she wanted to wrestle me, but for her, it’s impossible to take me down,” Fiorot said. “I think it’s not her category. The flyweights are too strong for her.”
With criticism flying at her from every direction, Rose Namajunas snapped back in a video clip shared by her manager.
“I’m not too small for Flyweight — there’s no way,” a fired-up Namajuas claimed. “I dropped her a**. How am I too small? Maybe I had some moments where I was, like, stumbling over, or I wasn’t totally in position. But I’m like, ‘Dude, you felt no stronger than Weili. You felt no stronger than Weili, and I beat her a** twice.’ So shut the f*ck up. I’m not too small for flyweight.
“You can say anything else,” she added. “You can say you beat me on points, okay? But you can’t say I’m too small for flyweight. And you can’t say that I didn’t win a round because I for sure won at least one round if not two. But, that’s up for debate, right?”
Manon Fiorot has two tough options after Saturday: Wait for a shot, or risk her contender position in another fight.
Manon Fiorot kept her ‘O’ inside the Octagon intact with a decisive unanimous decision victory over rising contender Erin…
(@MacMallyMMA) 
‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas‘ move to flyweight has been heavily criticized by a plethora of fighters and fans. You can now add former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson to that ever-growing list. Despite capturing the strawweight title on two separate occasions and owning two wins over the division’s current queen, Zhang Weili, Rose Namajunas opted to […]