Rose Namajunas Turned Down 115lb Title Shot Against Weili Zhang

Former champion Rose Namajunas has revealed she turned down the chance to face Weili Zhang for the strawweight title.

The first ever UFC titlist from China will instead square off against another former champion in Poland’s Joanna Jędrzejczyk in the co-main event at UFC 248.

‘Thug Rose’ last fought when losing her title against Jessica Andrade at UFC 237 in 2019. Despite dominating much of the early stages Namajunas found herself knocked out for the first time in her career after being slammed by Andrade who was escaping a submission attempt.

Despite coming off a loss the UFC were more than willing to give Namajunas another shot at the title, however she refused the fight with Zhang. Explaining her situation on UFC Unfiltered Namajunas said.

“I was even offered Weili at the time, but I just – at the time I was still dealing with a lot of my own (things), just getting my head right, and I hired a mental coach that’s helping me do a lot of different things. And so there was a lot of work that needed to be done.

“I wasn’t ready for that just yet. I didn’t even really know if I wanted to fight at that time anymore, just because I wanted to make sure that this is something that I wanted to do and I wasn’t just like, ‘Let’s have another fight just because I’m good at it.’”

The UFC 237 loss to Andrade was admittedly a tough one to take for Namajunas who not only had to deal with losing her title but knowing exactly what she did wrong.

It was definitely one of my harder losses that I’ve dealt with,” Namajunas said. “I think the thing is, I knew exactly – it was easier in the sense that I knew exactly all of the things that I did wrong. The harder part is taking responsibility for myself, and yeah, maybe situations around me that I couldn’t control could have been better. But I could have taken control over a lot more things in my life. So ultimately, taking that responsibility is the hardest part out of everything.”

The manner of her defeat has also played a part. After being slammed on her neck Namajunas realizes she could have been seriously hurt or even disabled. The fear got the better of her, but that’s something shes let go of heading into her rematch with Andrade at UFC 249 in Brooklyn.

“I got dropped on my head – I could have been paralyzed. It’s like, ‘Well, I wasn’t paralyzed, so why should I be paralyzed in fear if it didn’t happen?’” Namajunas said. “I should celebrate the fact that I’m walking around and it’s a miracle that my neck feels better than it’s ever felt in the past few years. Prior to that happening, I had a fracture in my neck, so it was hurting a lot – and after that, I feel great.”

Will Rose Namajunas beat Jessica Andrade at UFC 249?