The former two-time UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas is back this weekend for another pivotal flyweight match-up.
"Thug" Rose has earned back-to-back wins at 125-pounds and faces a unique threat on Saturday night in Edmonton.
In the co-main event, she faces the #3-ranked contender in Erin Blanchfield who has emerged in recent years as one of the most exciting talents in the division.
Blanchfield is now out to rebound from her first loss inside the Octagon but the 25-year old isn't someone that has recently appeared on Namajunas' radar.
Many expected to see Maycee Barber get rebooked with the former strawweight queen following their cancelled fight but when that wasn't an option due to Barber's ongoing health concerns, this fight made a lot of sense.
Namajunas told the media during fight week that this match-up is something she's been thinking about for a long time:
"Of course her being higher ranked and I've always had my eye on Erin like whenever she kind of like started her momentum and stuff in the UFC. Even I was in strawweight and I thought she was a great competitor and someone that if I ever got the chance to face her, I'd be really excited about."
Namajunas has faced a lot of different styles during her UFC tenure and though she's competed against grappling-heavy fighters in the past, Blanchfield brings a unique approach to the table which "Thug" Rose isn't taking lightly.
"I guess with her, what's kind of unique is that face that she kind of has a sort of cycle that she puts people through and if she can somehow get to her little cycle, people start to, she just finds her zone and she's like very comfortable in that and people are very uncomfortable in that. What's good about my preparation and everything like that is I've done a lot of work on preventing that cycle from even happening and even if something does get started at some point, I'm very confident in my ability to adapt and to survive or get back to a good place."
Both women's only losses at 125-pounds are to French striker Manon Fiorot who is still waiting for her title shot due to the recently concluded trilogy of fights between Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso.
Though Namajunas believes that Fiorot is the rightful next challenger having beaten her already, she's also coming into this fight with the goal of making the UFC's job a bit harder.
"Yeah, I mean I guess anything's possible and yeah, that's my intentions, to really put on a good performance enough to where like there's no doubt that I could be next but I still just kind of feel like as if Manon deserves it next anyways regardless of what I do, you know what I mean."
Watch the full media day interview below via MMA Junkie:
