Outside Source
If she had been ready to compete, Rose Namajunas could have been the one challenging for Weili Zhang’s strawweight title at UFC 248 this Saturday.
During an interview on the ”UFC Unfiltered” podcast, Namajunas revealed that she was offered the fight with Zhang but she wasn’t mentally ready to accept the opportunity at the time it was presented. Instead it will be Joanna Jedrzejczyk who vies for 115-pound gold in the UFC 248 co-main event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Namajunas already owns a pair of victories over Jedrzejczyk in strawweight title fights.
“I think everyone else felt the same way [that I deserved the title shot], too,” 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 [issues], 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.’”
Namajunas was doing well in her title defense against Jessica Andrade at UFC 237 before being slammed on her head for a knockout loss in the second round of their bout last May. “Thug” Rose took some time away after the setback and even contemplated retirement before ultimately deciding to return to the Octagon.
She admits that the Andrade defeat was one of the most difficult of her career to date. Namajuas will return to face Andrade in a rematch at UFC 249 on April 18 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“It was definitely one of my harder losses that I’ve dealt with,” Namajunas said of the defeat. “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.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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