För ett år sedan när TUF 20 avslutades förberedde sig stråviktaren Rose Namajunas sig för sin titelmatch mot Carla Esparza och man trodde att hon skulle kunna bli en ny Ronda Rousey. Hon förlorade sedan matchen via submission i tredje ronden och och många ansåg att man kanske satt ribban för lite högt.
Senast mötte hon Angela Hill under UFC 192 och segrade då via submission i första ronden.
Nu blir rollerna ombytta när 23-årige Namajunas återvänder till Las Vegas för att ta sig an Paige VanZant som blivit den nya stjärnan i UFC.
Det här berättar Namajunas, via ”MMAFighting”:
I don’t know — I don’t even know if our roles are even interchangeable because we’re way different human beings. We’re two different individuals with different paths. So, as much as I’d like to say…there’s definitely a lot of patterns that you can see growing up, with people making similar mistakes, [myself] being over-confident like I was and learning that the hard way and then coming back and coming stronger — usually that’s the natural progression of a younger, more immature individual kind of coming back, and I seem to be on the right path.
At the same time, we’re two different people, so it’s really hard to compare our circumstances.
Namajunas ersätter då sin lagkamrat Joanne Calderwood som blivit tvungen att dra sig ur på grund av skada. Många blev förvånade över matchningen då man nu ger VanZant en svårare motståndare.
I think it’s actually a really natural progression. Was it like one fight of a difference in terms of when they would match us up? Maybe, because obviously no one expected Jo Jo to pull out. I think that we were going to be lined up either right after that fight or somewhere maybe one more fight after that. So to me, I view her as a high level opponent even though there’s a lot of criticism around saying she’s kind of like brought up slowly and all that. I think it’s a very natural progression the way that we’ve matched up right now.
Namajunas beundrar VanZant för hur bra hon har gjort ifrån sig i sina matcher och utanför.
I think she’s doing her thing, she’s doing all these interviews. She’s here and there and she’s been able to juggle it all and constantly getting technically better as well as really not losing any of her natural aggression.
Hon tror heller inte att det hela blir för mycket på en gång för VanZant och anser att hon själv kommit långt på bara ett års tid:
Obviously not, she’d doing pretty good. I think that she’s being brought up at the rate that she needs to be brought up, and obviously this is a jump up in competition for her coming up. So I think that’s the test that everybody’s been waiting for, and I think she’s been waiting for as well. I’m more than willing to bring it to her.
Mentally, I’m just so ready. I’m more motivated than ever, and I’m really just enjoying this crazy ride.
