Tracy Cortez‘s maiden UFC defeat last weekend seems to have affected her positioning in the women’s flyweight division. But her opponent, who handed her the loss, Rose Namajunas, has risen in the ranks as yet another change takes place in the UFC rankings, following ‘Thug Rose’s dominant performance at UFC Denver.

Rose Namajunas wanted to finish Tracy Cortez last weekend, which she couldn’t. She did wobble the 11-2 125’er and appeared ecstatic about it during the post-fight pressure. But ‘Thug Rose’ may not have thought that the win would move her closer to top contenders in the division.

Rose Namajunas enters the top 5

The former two-time strawweight champion outperformed Tracy Cortez at UFC on ESPN 59. She had more strikes and more takedowns than the latter, and guess what? Rose Namajunas’s second win in the flyweight division pushed her up into the top 5. For Cortez, however, she moved down a spot and now sits two places away from the top 10, at the 12th position. Meanwhile, Jasmine Jasudavicius, who defeated Fatima Kline also made an upward move from the 15th to the 14th position.

Rose Namajunas’s turnaround has been impressive as people started casting doubt on her abilities after losing twice on the trot. Now that she’s in the top 5. How many fights do you think will she have to compete in before getting that all-important chance to become a two-weight champion and take on Alexa Grasso? There’s a chance she could butt heads with former champion Valentina Shevchenko as well and that is a guaranteed banger for sure.

As of now, Alexa Grasso is being featured for the Riyadh Season Noche, and the plans are for a trilogy fight, which appears unclear as Valentina Shevchenko doesn’t seem too interested in that date. Can this lead to Rose Namajunas entering the championship scene? Well, that’s a stretch but anything can happen in the UFC. Meanwhile, ‘Thug Rose’ recently revealed that she has her eye on a title, apart from the divisional title.

‘Thug Rose’ wants the BMF title

Recently, former UFC star Joanna Jedrzejczyk mentioned how much she wants the UFC to introduce a BMF belt for women. She’s even willing to come out of retirement to fight for that prize, but the problem is that Dana White hasn’t given his two cents on it yet. But that idea hasn’t died down because Rose Namajunas seems to want that too. She openly called for a fight for that belt after her win at UFC Denver.

“Give me the belt, man! I want it… I’m Colorado’s first UFC champion so I wanna bring the second one back here. So, either that or maybe a women’s BMF,” said Rose Namajunas in her post-fight interview. The men’s BMF title has already produced some stunning fights and memorable moments, so there may not be any reason why the UFC won’t go for it. Nevertheless, it all depends on how Dana White wishes to navigate this situation.

Rose Namajunas is slowly gaining momentum and a big win in the top 5 could propel her to the title scene which has been nominated by Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko as of late. Nevertheless, what do you make of the changes in the rankings?