Rose Namajunas

‘Better Dead Than Red’: Rose Namajunas Using Political Motivation For Weili Zhang Fight

Things have taken a political turn in the Weili Zhang vs. Rose Namajunas fight. The pair will collide for the women’s strawweight title as one of three championship fights taking place at the upcoming UFC 261 pay-per-view event on April 24 in Jacksonville, Florida. And while most would have expected a cordial buildup given the […]

Things have taken a political turn in the Weili Zhang vs. Rose Namajunas fight.

The pair will collide for the women’s strawweight title as one of three championship fights taking place at the upcoming UFC 261 pay-per-view event on April 24 in Jacksonville, Florida.

And while most would have expected a cordial buildup given the personalities and respect between the two fighters, Namajunas has injected some politics into the equation as she is using Zhang’s home country of China — being a communist country — as a source of motivation for their upcoming fight.

“You know, the animosity and things like that, those can be very motivating factors in short moments,” Namajunas said (via @FullContactMTWF). “But in all actuality, going into the fight, maybe there was certain rivalries and things like that, but I always kept myself in control. I never really hated the person and I don’t hate Weili or anything like that. There’s nothing, but I do feel as though I have a lot to fight for in this fight and what she represents.

“I was just kind of reminding myself of my background and everywhere that I come from and my family and everything like that, and I kind of wanted to educate my training partner [on] the Lithuanian struggle and just the history of it all, so we watched ‘The Other Dream Team’ just to kind of get an overall sentiment of what we fight for. Just after watching that, it was just a huge reminder of like, yeah, it’s better dead than red, you know? I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Weili is red. That’s what she represents. It’s nothing personal against her, but that’s a huge motivating factor of why I fight, and I fight for freedom.

“I’ve got the Christ consciousness, I’ve got Lithuanian blood, and I’ve got the American dream. And all of those things I’m taking with me into the fight.”

Namajunas, of course, is Lithuanian-American with her parents being Lithuanian immigrants who left the communist rule of the Soviet Union. That makes her comments understandable but still unnecessary at the same time, especially as Zhang has never publicly advocated for communism.

It will definitely be interesting to hear how Zhang responds to these comments even if they weren’t made with any ill intentions from Namajunas.

What do you make of these comments?

Namajunas Sees Zhang Bout As Symbolic Fight Against Communism

Rose Namajunas has never been one for trash talk, but her recent comments seem to run much deeper than that and bleed into family lineage & political ideology. At UFC 261, Weili Zhang will defend her strawweight championship against Rose Namajunas …

Zhang vs Namajunas; What Might We See?

The fight fans have been waiting for! UFC 261; a classic in the making. It will be a night where some of the world’s biggest and baddest women collide in the octagon. The main event will see UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko defend her belt against Jessica Andrade, and headlining the show is a fight […]

The fight fans have been waiting for!

UFC 261; a classic in the making. It will be a night where some of the world’s biggest and baddest women collide in the octagon. The main event will see UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko defend her belt against Jessica Andrade, and headlining the show is a fight that many fans have been waiting for. The fighting pride of China and first-ever Asian UFC champion Zhang Weili, against the former UFC Strawweight champ, Rose ‘Thug’ Namajunas.

The fight will go down on April 24th April starting at 3:15 PM PST in Las Vegas. Fans can tune into either ESPN or via UFC Fight Pass to watch this highly anticipated fight. The recent fight schedule is one that many UFC fans will be enjoying and with so many big fights happening, it’s an exciting moment to test your odds with UFC betting. So far this year we’ve already seen some excellent battles with the likes of Poirier vs. McGregor 2, Blachowicz vs. Adesanya, and we still have Miocic vs. Ngannou 2, and Whittaker vs. Costa, all happening before UFC 261 gets underway. There’s plenty of matchups where anything could happen in the coming months.

Tale of the Tape

Zhang Weilei

Starting with the champion. Looking at her physique, she stands at 5′ 4″ and weighs in at 115 lbs, and is the shorter of the two. But that won’t have much effect thanks to her powerful striking style that is just as frighteningly quick. Zhang is the first UFC champion to come from Asia and her style is a true representation of her country that has a deep history of combat. She began her martial arts training with Shaolin Kung Fu, Sanda, and Shuai Jiao, and with striking being a large part of these disciplines, they have helped her build a reputation as a notorious striker after transitioning into MMA.

Zhang’s notoriety as one of the deadliest strikers is a result of her raw power, just look back at her last fight with Joanna J?drzejczyk. When you’re witnessing one of the most powerful punchers in the sport, there’s alwaysgood odds that she’s going to knock her opponent out. Not only is she powerful, but she also has incredible control and knows when and how to throw. This is shown in her very good stats of 45% striking accuracy and 4.43 Significant Strikes APM. The fact that Zhang trains out of the Black Tiger Fight Club signifies that she is also very technically sound too.

On the flip side, there are definitely areas that could pose a threat to the defending champion. While she packs a punch, she’s actually very prone to receiving plenty of them too. She came out on top in her last bout but it was a crazy brawl, which is why it was namedfight of the year 2020. We’ve seen that she can be rocked and combined with her also being known to give indications of what she’s going to throw, the right fighter could strike gold.

This will be Zhang’s first fight since arguably one of the greatest fights in UFC history with J?drzejczyk. She is undefeated in the UFC and has only one defeat coming in her pro debut back in 2013. But since then, she has had her hand raised in every single fight. But will she be victorious this time? We’ll have to wait and see.

For the challenger, she stands at 5’5″ and weighs in at 115 lbs, taking the height advantage in this championship bout. The former number 1 ranked strawweight is a specialist in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but also holds black belts in a number of disciplines.

Evident in her record and typically of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters, Namajunas possesses a strong ability to make her opponents tap with 5 of her 9 victories coming via submission. Nicknamed Thug Rose thanks to her aggressive style, this certainly has all the making to be another brawl as the striker meets the aggressor. Namajunas likes to lead and put pressure on her opponents with a series of jabs and kicks, before either going for a takedown or throwing a big kick. Namajunas is the younger of the two and at 28, she still has plenty more potential to succeed consideringall the strengths she has.

Although she is an aggressor, she tends to find herself in the middle of brawls. This is perhaps not the smartest way to go when faced with the likes of Zhang. She needs to be careful that she doesn’t leave herself exposed when losing position after submission attempts as a ground and pound from a power puncher like Zhang could get ugly.

Last time out, she got her revenge on Andrade who had beaten her prior. If theUFC rankings are anything to go by, she sits in 4th place behind her opponent. Overallher record is 9 wins and 4 losses, which is less favorable compared to Zhang and fewer fights, but she has more experience competing in the UFC which could speak to the level of competition she has come up against.

Overall, this has everything you’d look for in a UFC championship fight. These are two of the toughest athletes who are not shy of brawling and possess all kinds of technical ability from a range of martial art disciplines. You’d expect that if this fight stays on their feet, the power of Zhang may be too much for Namajunas, but if this goes to the ground, Namajunas may be able to take advantage of her superior skills and tap her opponent. One thing for sure is that this is going to be an action-packed event that could go either way, the question is, who are you picking to win?

Weili Zhang Reacts To Mike Tyson Dismissing Her Chances Against Rose Namajunas

UFC women’s strawweight champion Weili Zhang is not too bothered by Mike Tyson’s prediction of her fight with Rose Namajunas. Zhang defends her 115-pound title against Namajunas at the upcoming UFC 261 pay-per-view event taking place April 24 in Jacksonville, Florida. And in a recent episode of his podcast, Tyson recently stated his belief to […]

UFC women’s strawweight champion Weili Zhang is not too bothered by Mike Tyson’s prediction of her fight with Rose Namajunas.

Zhang defends her 115-pound title against Namajunas at the upcoming UFC 261 pay-per-view event taking place April 24 in Jacksonville, Florida.

And in a recent episode of his podcast, Tyson recently stated his belief to UFC president Dana White that Zhang would be destroyed by Namajunas.

What did Zhang make of those comments?

“That might be based on cultural differences between the East and the West,” Zhang said in a recent interview. “Easterners are relatively reserved and normally leave wiggle room when making predictions. There’s no defiance for no reason in our style. But Westerners are relatively outgoing and sometimes tend to pass judgement on things that haven’t happened yet.

“I also don’t think he’s really eligible to assess MMA as opposed to boxing, in which he has great experience. I could take it into consideration if he was involved with MMA, but he hasn’t really taken it up so maybe he’s just supporting from his country. His view hasn’t put any pressure on me or made me unhappy.”

While some outlets might take this as a dispute between the pair, it is simply a disagreement and Zhang still very much respects the boxing legend.

“… Instead, I respect him very much and I hope one day, he might take a chance in MMA. … I hope he can see this video.”

What do you make of Tyson’s prediction?

Nojus Namajunas, Brother Of Rose Namajunas, Books MMA Debut

Nojus Namajunas is set to make fighting a family business. The older brother of former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, Nojus is set to join the professional MMA ranks at Mountain Force MMA 23 on March 27. “I’m super excited,” Namajunas said in an interview with MMA Junkie. “It’s been a long time coming for […]

Nojus Namajunas is set to make fighting a family business.

The older brother of former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, Nojus is set to join the professional MMA ranks at Mountain Force MMA 23 on March 27.

“I’m super excited,” Namajunas said in an interview with MMA Junkie. “It’s been a long time coming for me, actually.”

Namajunas first delved into martial arts at the age of 6. With his then 4-year old sister beside him, Namajunas attended his first taekwondo lesson from Great Grandmaster Chom Son Cho in Milwaukee.

“(Cho) had us all line up in a row,” Namajunas said. “… He went all down the line. He would have us line up shoulder-to-shoulder all the way. He would go up to us and punch right in front of our faces, like an inch in front of our eyes. The idea was that you couldn’t blink when something is coming at you, so you could see, you know? That blink: If you blinked, you had to go do 10 pushups on your knuckles. He just did that for the whole class for the whole hour. We were just doing pushups until we figured it out.”

After taking taekwondo lessons for seven years, Namajunas grew tired of what he perceived as gym politics and walked away from the sport. He went on to become a musician, owning a piano studio and teaching over 40 students. However, spending the last few years watching Rose rise through the UFC ranks and ultimately achieve her goal of becoming champion inspired Namajunas to give MMA another shot.

“When she got on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ show, I thought that was really awesome because that was her chance,” Namajunas said. “That was her big break. She took that far. She took it all the way to a title shot. She lost that fight against Carla (Esparza), and from there, for some reason – I told her because I was actually at that fight; she was only like 22 – I was like, ‘Rose, you’re only 22. You’re so young. You don’t even get your full adult brain until you’re 26.’ That’s the main thing, that in my mind was inspiring because she was so young and she was already at the pinnacle of the sport.”

Wanting to see what would happen if he gave martial arts his full effort, he moved out to Denver and began training again.

“All my life, I’ve been a fighter in my heart,” Namajunas said. “I’ve had to use self-defense in real situations and stuff like that. Not only that, I’ve been around it and watched it and learned a lot. Once I started to train it, I started to perform pretty (well) in the gym and I was like, ‘Well, if these guys are pros and I’m doing it here with them, I should just try to commit myself and make a run for it.’”

Namajunas took part in his first amateur MMA fight in March 2019, losing by split decision. Undeterred, he returned to the cage six months later and picked up a 57-second knockout. At 31, he’s now making the jump to the pro ranks knowing that his window of opportunity is closing.

“Most people that are 30, yeah, they’re not going to make it to the UFC,” Namajunas said. “The odds are against me. I really do believe in myself and I think I can go really, really far if I’m just doing what I’m doing right now. We’ll see how far I can get, but I do have aspirations to go to the UFC and do everything that I can to get to the top.”

Four weeks after Namajunas makes his pro debut in Utah, Rose will challenge for a UFC belt for the third time in her career. She challenges Zhang Weili for the strawweight championship at UFC 261, which will see American fans return to the arena for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown. Nojus Namajunas predicts his family will go 2-for-2 during the stretch.

“She’s going to finish her, dude,” Namajunas said. “… (And) I’m going to go for the choke.”

Do you think we could see Nojus Namajunas in the UFC one day?

Valentina Shevchenko Picks Namajunas To Beat Zhang At UFC 261

Valentina Shevchenko isn’t interested in talking up a potential super fight with strawweight queen Weili Zhang. The UFC flyweight champion partly believes Zhang will soon lose her title. The 115lb champion is scheduled to defend her belt against Rose Namajunas at UFC 261 on April 24. On the same card Shevchenko will put her flyweight […]

Valentina Shevchenko isn’t interested in talking up a potential super fight with strawweight queen Weili Zhang.

The UFC flyweight champion partly believes Zhang will soon lose her title.

The 115lb champion is scheduled to defend her belt against Rose Namajunas at UFC 261 on April 24.

On the same card Shevchenko will put her flyweight title on the line against Jessica Andrade.

In the early months of 2021, speculation has been building about what’s next for Shevchenko and Zhang if they retain their belts at UFC 261.

The prospect of a champ vs. champ fight has been brought up by many fans and pundits who are getting excited about a potential match-up between Shevchenko and Zhang.

In an interview with James Lynch of Fanatics View, Shevchenko revealed she doesn’t share the same excitement.

This is largely due to her belief that Namajunas will beat Zhang and end talk of the super fight at UFC 261.

“I don’t want to rush (the Zhang superfight) yet because I still believe that Rose is going to be the winner,” Shevchenko told Lynch. “I still believe it, that’s why if it happens this way there is no more talk. So let’s see. Let’s see what’s going to happen on that night and I’ll look at that fight. If Weili wins, okay, you’re welcome, I don’t see any problem to fight her because I understand totally her fight game and what she is a fighter. It’s just going to be a massive preparation to do my best in this fight (against Andrade). So let’s see how it’s going to happen. Let’s see how the fight turns out.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)

Do you agree with Valentina Shevchenko? Will Rose Namajunas scupper plans for the super fight by beating Weili Zhang at UFC 261 on April 24?