Rose Namajunas 'Just Joking' About BMF Fight, Focused on Winning Flyweight Belt

Rose Namajunas is gradually getting more comfortable as a flyweight.

The former strawweight champion earned her second victory at 125 pounds, as she captured a unanimous decision triumph against Tracy Cortez in the UFC on ESPN 59 headliner at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday night. Namajunas dropped Cortez in the opening stanza and then cruised from there, blending striking and takedowns to keep her short-notice opponent off balance.

“Absolutely I’m happy with it. I’m happy with one, having very little injury, two, being able to win and three, I feel like it was a pretty exciting fight,” Namajunas said at the post-fight press conference. “I wanted a finish, of course. It’s been a while since I have finished somebody. It’s been since what like, 2020, [2021] or something? I felt like I was pretty close at least and dropped her at first. Overall, very happy.”

Cortez, who stepped in for Maycee Barber , was a resilient adversary who had some of her best moments late in the fight. Still, it wasn’t enough to get the better of a seasoned former champion who usually had an answer for everything her opponent had to offer.

“I knew she was going to be really tough. I guess she was a little more in shape than I thought she was going to be,” Namajunas said. “But at the same time, I could also feel the moments where she started to get a little bit of hope and kind of pressure and go for it, she would kind of get deflated when I would come back with something. She would recharge again and do soemthing else. [I was] a little bit surprised with her ability to keep trying, keep going for something even after getting shut down. But I knew she had a lot of heart.”

Namajunas was successful on all five of her takedown attempts in the fight, as she held the edge in an area where Cortez might have been expected to have an advantage.

“It’s awesome because I knew she was really good at getting back up when she would get taken down in her fights,” Namajunas said. “I knew that her wrestling was really good offensively, but I thought she was gonna wrestle more. I didn’t want to try to hold her down too much, but I didn’t want to waste my energy trying to keep her down. It actually worked out really well. I was in mount for a long time. I’ve just got to work on my finishing shots on the top a little bit more ,but overall I was really happy with that.”

Namajunas began her run at flyweight with a loss to Manon Fiorot , but she has rebounded to post consecutive triumphs against Cortez and Amanda Ribas . According to the Colorado-based fighter, it took some time to find her footing at 125 pounds. She was also battling some injuries that have improved with time.

“Putting on that muscle, I think the last fight that I had at flyweight, going into that fight I felt a little bit slower,” Namajunas said. “It turns out that both of my shoulders were partially torn going into that fight. It was just taking a while for me…all the stuff we had worked on, it was just building blocks. I had to build my momentum to get to this point. My sholders feel really good. My right one still kind of aches a little bit sometimes. I’ve just got to fully heal, and then I think it’s just gonna keep getting better. There’s a lot to improve on still.”

During her post-fight interview, Namajunas mentioned an interest in fighting for a women’s version of the BMF title. However, she admitted that wasn’t an especially serious sentiment.

“I was just joking, actually,” Namajunas said. “I know Joanna [Jedrzejczyk] said she would come back for a women’s BMF [title fight]. That would just be for fun. I love her. I think I was kind of just joking there. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

For Namajunas, the lure of the UFC flyweight strap far outweighs that of a potential BMF fight.

“Oh flyweight [title] for sure,” she said. “BMF is fun, I guess. But yeah, give me the champ.”

Namajunas would also be open to a rebooking against Barber, who withdrew from the event due to health concerns, though it isn’t necessarily a priority.

“Hopefully she feels better. I don’t know what’s going on with her health,” Namajunas said. “I just wish her well. When she feels better, then maybe we can talk about it. Ultimately, I’m just forward thinking right now.”