Rose Namajunas is a bonafide flyweight contender. The former UFC women’s strawweight champion makes her third appearance at 125 pounds when she takes on streaking contender Tracy Cortez in her home base of Denver in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday.
Namajunas (13-6) earned her No. 6 ranking in the UFC’s official women’s flyweight Top 15 by defeating Amanda Ribas in her second flyweight appearance. It was a step in the right direction after losing to Manon Fiorot — who seems to only be behind Valentina Shevchenko in the title queue — in Namajunas’ flyweight debut. Namajunas previously trained alongside Kamaru Usman and Justin Gaethje under the guidance of coach Trevor Wittman in Denver. Namajunas gets a rare home game in her city.
“A win is a win. You know how the UFC works, you’re only relevant if you’re winning, or obviously if you do something special,” Namajunas told reporters at Thursday’s media day. “That’s definitely high on my priority list: number one is to protect myself at all times, but number two is to win, and then number three is to be spectacular and perform and be me, and do what I do best.”
Cortez (11-1) unexpectedly finds herself in the biggest fight of her career….
