Rose Namajunas may be filling in for Joanne Calderwood against Paige VanZant on December 10th, but the fight with VanZant didn’t come as much of a shock.

Many saw the UFC making a fight between two of the top ranked UFC women’s strawweights as strange if the UFC was trying to bring up more challengers for Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s championship, however Namajunas thinks this is a natural progression:

She spoke on The MMA Hour:

“No, 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.”

“Mentally, I’m just so ready. I’m more motivated than ever, and I’m really just enjoying this crazy ride.”

Namajunas and VanZant will fight in the main event of a UFC Fight Pass exclusive card on Thursday December 10th.

Who do you have winning?