From emerging as a standout contestant on The Ultimate Fighter 20, to reaching the top of the Strawweight division on two separate occasions, Rose Namajunas has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in Women’s MMA history. For almost 10 years, the former Strawweight champion has cemented herself as a mainstay amongst the best female competitors in the UFC. In that time period, she won the 115-pound championship twice, while besting the division’s other stalwart elite like Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Jéssica Andrade, and Weili Zhang.
Flyweight Roots
Over the past year, though, Namajunas has since shifted her focus to the Flyweight class in pursuit of even greater challenges, most recently defeating Amanda Ribas last March. This past Saturday, she faced top flyweight contender Tracy Cortez in a main event showcase at UFC on ESPN 59, winning the fight with a dominant unanimous decision win. And now, let’s take a look back at how “Thug Rose” became one of the more prolific women’s fighters in the world, from her days as an undefeated youth on the Midwest circuit, to becoming the distinguished UFC contender that she is today.
Beginning her MMA career on August 7th, 2010, Namajunas made her amateur debut at North American Fight Championship: Relentless in her native Wisconsin against Melissa Pacheco at Flyweight, winning the fight by TKO in just under three minutes. For almost the next two years, she would compete solely under the King of the Cage promotion, going unbeaten there in her next three fights while bouncing around from Flyweight and Strawweight.
Professional Debut
After a perfect stint as an amateur, Namajunas entered the professional ranks on January 5th, 2013 in the all-female fighting organization, Invicta FC, participating in their fourth ever event Invicta FC 4. Here, “Thug Rose” fought and prevailed against future UFC fighter, Emily Kagan, taking the contest in round three by rear-naked choke. She then went on to appear twice more in the Invicta cage that year, coming up victorious in her sophomore outing versus Kathina Catron before suffering her first ever defeat to Tecia Torres (now Tecia Pennington).
Although her undefeated streak had finally been halted, Namajunas soon got the call that would change her life forever when she was invited by the UFC to be a contestant on the 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter in early 2014.
Ultimate Fighter Finalist
While the season did have the usual stakes of a coveted UFC contract on the line, this particular iteration of The Ultimate Fighter had an extra perk attached to it: the winner would also be crowned the first ever UFC Strawweight champion. Proving herself as one of the top prospects in MMA, Namajunas steamrolled her way through the competition, finishing all of her opponents by submission to reach the tournament’s final round opposite the former Invicta FC Strawweight champion, Carla Esparza. Sadly, the title ended up slipping through her grasp after falling to Esparza in the third round by way of rear-naked choke.
While the loss may have been devastating for the young prospect, it actually only proved to be a slight setback in the early phases of her UFC career, as Namajunas soon catapulted herself into the title picture once more by winning four of her next five fights, including beating Tecia Pennington in a rematch. After conquering several of the 115-pound division’s finest, she found herself coming metaphorically and quite literally face-to-face with the five-time defending champion, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, at UFC 217.
Collision Course
By this point in her reign, Jędrzejczyk had risen to become possibly the most dominant female fighter in the UFC, if not one of the overall best in the promotion. What’s more, she won the belt by knocking out the same woman who Namajunas lost to in the inaugural championship bout just a few years prior, Carla Esparza.
The odds also didn’t fare well for “Thug” either, with betting lines counting her out as a +500 underdog. Shockingly, Namajunas would put on the most solid performance of her career at that point by starching Jędrzejczyk round one to claim her place at the top of the strawweight division.
She then proceeded to defend her newly-acquired strap against the Pole in an immediate rematch, coming out on top once more with a unanimous decision win while proving her title win was no fluke.
First Real Setback
After settling her rivalry with Jędrzejczyk, it looked as though Namajunas was destined to rule over 115 pounds for a very long time. That was, however, until she crossed paths with the Brazilian striking juggernaut, Jéssica Andrade, in her second title defense at UFC 237, who wound up pushing the American off her throne by slamming her to the canvas in a gruesome TKO stoppage.
Having surrendered her title in scary fashion, no one would have argued if Namajunas wanted to take some time away to heal up and prepare for her inevitable comeback. However, it came as a surprise when she revealed that her fight against Andrade might have been the last we saw of her, citing a lack of interest in competing.
Fortunately, this wouldn’t be the case, as “Thug Rose” appeared once again in the world-famous Octagon over a year later to combat Andrade in non-title fare. The fight went the full three round distance, but it was Namajunas who emerged as the winner with a competitive split decision victory.
Two-Time Champ
The win elevated her right back into championship contention, setting up a co-main event matchup with then Strawweight title holder, Weili Zhang, at UFC 261. On paper, Zhang easily stood as the toughest test of Namajunas’ whole combat sports career, as the Chinese sensation was riding a huge wave of momentum with a 20 fight win streak, along with possessing the most knockout power out of everyone else at 115 pounds. Turning back the clock to one fateful day when she won the belt for the first time, however, Namajunas again flabbergasted the world by knocking out Zhang in just a minute of the first round, reestablishing herself as the top dog at Strawweight once more.
Much like in the case of her saga with Jędrzejczyk, “Thug Rose” faced Zhang later that year in a highly-anticipated second contest at UFC 268. Unlike their first encounter, this bout went all five rounds and was much more back-and-forth, with Zhang securing the early rounds with her better striking ability and Namajunas taking the later ones with her grappling expertise. By the time it was all said and done, it was the champion who was awarded with the split decision win, notching the first defense of her second reign.
Up next for Namajunas would be yet another rematch, this time in the form of past foe Carla Esparza. Taking place at UFC 274, the fight was a rematch nearly ten years in the making, one that fans and pundits were anxious to see if “Thug Rose” could push past the first woman to ever defeat her in the promotion.
What some were expecting to be an entertaining fight between former rivals ended up boiling down to a truly lackluster affair, with neither competitor showing much aggression the entire time, or a lack of engagement thereof. In fact, by the time the final horn sounded, both women had only landed just under 30% of their overall strikes after throwing over 130 of them each. In what became universally recognized as one of the worst championship fights in UFC history, it was Esparza who got the judges nod with a mostly-forgettable split decision triumph.
Flyweight Future
Having competed at 115 pounds for the entirety of her professional career, Namajunas then made the choice to move up to Flyweight in 2023. At the time of this writing, she has competed three times in the weight class, losing her debut fight to Manon Fiorot and successfully defeating Amanda Ribas and Tracy Cortez.
Should “Thug” be able to keep her momentum going, we may very well be seeing her fight for a second belt, along with the unbridled glory of being one of only two women to ever win a championship in two different divisions, with the first being Amanda Nunes.
