{"id":343058,"date":"2020-03-03T08:34:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T16:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=343058"},"modified":"2020-03-03T08:34:30","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T16:34:30","slug":"rose-namajunas-explains-why-she-turned-down-title-shot-against-weili-zhang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/rose-namajunas-explains-why-she-turned-down-title-shot-against-weili-zhang\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose Namajunas explains why she turned down title shot against Weili Zhang"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas says she was offered a title shot opposite reigning champ Weili Zhang, but decided to turn down the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Namajunas opened up on this would-be title fight, and explained why she turned it down, on a recent episode of the UFC Unfiltered<\/a> <\/em>podcast. She says she simply wasn’t sure that she wanted to continue fighting at the time \u2014 which is a pretty good reason not to fight the division’s top fighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone else felt the same way, too,\u201d Namajunas said (via MMA Junkie<\/a>). \u201cI was even offered Weili at the time, but I just \u2013 at the time I was still dealing with a lot of my own (things), just getting my head right, and I hired a mental coach that\u2019s helping me do a lot of different things. And so there was a lot of work that needed to be done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t ready for that just yet. I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t just like, \u2018Let\u2019s have another fight just because I\u2019m good at it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Namajunas has not fought since she surrendered the UFC strawweight title to Jessica Andrade, who went on to lose the title to Zhang. She lost the fight via TKO after being slammed on her head by Andrade.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, Namajunas admits this was a tough loss to deal with \u2014 particularly given its violent nature \u2014 but she was eventually able to move on from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely one of my harder losses that I\u2019ve dealt with,\u201d Namajunas said, looking back on that setback. \u201cI think the thing is, I knew exactly \u2013 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got dropped on my head \u2013 I could have been paralyzed. It\u2019s like, \u2018Well, I wasn\u2019t paralyzed, so why should I be paralyzed in fear if it didn\u2019t happen?’\u201d Namajunas added. \u201cI should celebrate the fact that I\u2019m walking around and it\u2019s a miracle that my neck feels better than it\u2019s ever felt in the past few years. Prior to that happening, I had a fracture in my neck, so it was hurting a lot \u2013 and after that, I feel great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose Namajunas is now set for a rematch with Jessica Andrade at UFC 249 this April in Brooklyn. The bout could easily produce the next strawweight title challenger. Weili Zhang, meanwhile, will defend her title against Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 this weekend.<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 3\/3\/2020.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas says she was offered a title shot opposite reigning champ Weili Zhang, but decided to turn down the opportunity. Namajunas opened up on this would-be title fight, and explained why she turned it down, on a recent episode of the UFC Unfiltered podcast. She says she simply wasn’t sure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":276558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10651,39610,39687],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRose Namajunas explains why she turned down title shot against Weili Zhang | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas says she was offered a title shot opposite reigning champ Weili Zhang, but decided to turn down the fight.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/rose-namajunas-explains-why-she-turned-down-title-shot-against-weili-zhang\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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