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Namajunas will challenge Weili Zhang for the undisputed 115-pound title when she meets the once-beaten Chinese superstar in the UFC 261 co-headliner this Saturday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. “Thug Rose” has rattled off four wins across her past five outings. Namajunas, 28, has not appeared since she avenged a 2019 defeat to Jessica Andrade and upended the Brazilian by split decision in their UFC 251 rematch on July 11.
As Namajunas approaches her five-round battle with Zhang, a look at five of the moments that have come to define her:
1. Flight Plan
Namajunas channeled her inner Rumina Sato and fired up social media in just her second professional appearance, as she submitted Kathina Lowe with a flying armbar in the first round of their Invicta Fighting Championships 5 pairing on April 5, 2013 at the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. Lowe conceded defeat 12 seconds into Round 1. An unknown prospect at the time, Namajunas pressured her counterpart with punches at the start, welcomed the clinch that followed and let her breathtaking skills do the rest. She isolated Lowe’s left arm as she took flight with her back to the fence, landed, rolled, activated her hips and forced the tapout in front of a spellbound audience.
2. A Bridge Too Far
Carla Esparza left nothing to chance. The Team Oyama product submitted the hyper-aggressive Namajunas with a third-round rear-naked choke to take the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s strawweight title in “The Ultimate Fighter 20” Finale headliner on Dec. 12, 2014 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Esparza sealed it 1:26 into Round 2. A competitive first round gave way to sheer dominance from the “Cookie Monster.” A former Invicta Fighting Championships titleholder, Esparza struck for repeated takedowns in the second, advanced to full mount and tore into Namajunas with thudding lefts and rights. “Thug Rose” survived but never seemed to recover. Esparza executed another takedown inside the first 15 seconds of Round 3, moved to the back and locked in the choke.
3. Turn the Paige
Namajunas gave Paige VanZant the what-when-how treatment, as she did what she wanted when she wanted and how she wanted to do it. A short-notice replacement for the injured Joanne Calderwood, Namajunas submitted VanZant with a fifth-round rear-naked choke in the UFC Fight Night 80 main event on Dec. 10, 2015 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. The tapout came 2:25 into Round 5. VanZant had no answers for an opponent who was superior to her in every phase. Namajunas secured repeated takedowns, unleashed ferocious elbow-laden ground-and-pound and forced the Team Alpha Male prospect to operate under the constant threat of submission. Bloodied by a cut under the eye, VanZant showed her resolve, as she withstood a rear-naked choke in the third round and two armbars in the fourth. Namajunas was not dissuaded. Midway through Round 5, she scrambled to VanZant’s back and took a choke from which there was no escape.
4. Shockwaves
“Thug Rose” turned the mixed martial arts world upside down when she took care of Joanna Jedrzejczyk with first-round punches and captured the undisputed women’s strawweight championship in a UFC 217 co-feature on Nov. 4, 2017 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jedrzejczyk bowed out 3:03 into Round 1, suffering her first defeat as a professional in a remarkable upset. Namajunas was measured and confident. She got Jedrzejczyk’s attention early, when she floored the off-balance Pole with an overhand right. Moments later, Namajunas decked the champion with a vicious left hook and pounced with follow-up punches until the job was done. She cemented herself as the world’s top strawweight five months later at UFC 223, where she laid claim to a unanimous decision over Jedrzejczyk in their five-round rematch.
5. Power Play
Andrade needed mere seconds to alter the course of history. The Brazilian powerhouse captured the undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s strawweight title with a slam knockout of Namajunas in the UFC 237 main event on May 11, 2019 at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. Namajunas surrendered her grip on the 115-pound throne 2:58 into Round 2 before a ravenous crowd of 15,193. “Thug Rose” floored Andrade with a first-round knee strike, fed her an unhealthy diet of jabs, utilized superior footwork and generally outstruck the Parana Vale Tudo standout across seven-plus minutes of a thrilling encounter. The tide shifted in Round 2 and did so dramatically. Andrade bullied the champion to the fence, executed a high-crotch lift—a maneuver she had attempted on two prior occasions—and slammed her headfirst into the canvas. The impact separated Namajunas from her faculties and made Andrade the UFC’s fourth strawweight champion.