Newly crowned UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas made history last Saturday when she defeated former champion Zhang Weili via sensational overhead KO kick. She became the first woman to recapture a title in UFC.
She had her first stint as champion from 2017 to 2019 when she got the better of Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217. ‘Thug’ even made a successful defense against the latter in their rematch. But she lost the title after getting knocked out by Jessica Andrade at UFC 237.
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Joanna, on the other hand, announced her return a few weeks ago and made it clear she will fight the winner of Weili vs Rose. Since Namajunas won the title, it’s harder for Joanna to get the title match, as ‘Thug’ has already beaten her twice.
Though it would have been a different case if Weili had kept her gold. In that case, a fight with Namajunas was possible.
After her fight at UFC 261, Rose was having a conversation with her fiance Pat Barry. She was having a fun chat with him and believed Jedrzejczyk won’t be happy.
“You made history as a two-time strawweight champ. No one’s done it yet,” Barry said.
“OK, I love Joanna, but she gonna be mad,” Namajunas explained.
“She’s going to be pissed. She was just saying, ‘Give me the whoever, I want the winner of both of them,’ and you won and she was like, Doh,” Barry concluded.
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The history between Rose Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Namajunas and Jedrzejczyk met first time in 2017 at UFC 217. The former was the undefeated champ of her division, and ‘Thug’ had entered the bout as the heavy underdog.
But to everyone’s dismay, she scored a victory in the first round itself via TKO and captured the gold for the first time. To make it more special, this was her first professional career knockout victory. The win also earned her second performance of the night bonus. It was termed as one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
She again had a rematch with Joanna at UFC 223, and she defended her title via a unanimous decision victory.
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Though it will be a mouthwatering trilogy bout for Joanna for Rose, it seems unlikely at this moment as they already had 2 matches and on both occasions; the latter came second. Will Joanna get another go at the title?
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