The UFC women’s strawweight champ was brutally defeated in Rio de Janeiro.
This weekend in Rio de Janeiro, Rose Namajunas (8-4) suffered a KO defeat by Jessica Andrade (20-6). The event was UFC 237 and it was the culmination of a night of upsets.
The loss dethroned the UFC women’s strawweight champion in dramatic fashion. After a great first round that saw Namajunas executing her typical fast-paced aggressive style, Andrade looked like any other Namajunas opponent.
However, in the second round, a body slam followed by strikes took out “Thug Rose”. Namajunas’ head hit the canvas and the move, which was close to spiking but technically not based on how Andrade did the throw, was dramatic, to say the least.
Ironically, Andrade’s nickname is “Bate Estaca” which means “pile driver” in Portuguese.
“Going into this one, I was like, ‘This might be the last time I ever do this.’ But we’ll see. We’ll take it one day at a time,” Namajunas said post-fight.
And The New
On the surface, it might have been easy for fans to look past Jessica Andrade.
Her UFC debut was back in 2013 resulting in a second-round TKO loss to Liz Carmouche. That was at bantamweight. She took another two losses to Marion Reneau and Raquel Pennington before moving to strawweight where she stacked three wins in a row.
It led her to her first shot at the title and then champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. The two fought at UFC 211 and it went the distance with Andrade on the losing end of a unanimous decision.
Still, the veteran of close to 30 fights continued, stacking up another three-fight win streak that led her to Namajunas.
Andrade said she would welcome a rematch, however, that is if Namajunas decides to return to the sport. She threw some low key shade at Dana White, who apparently unluckily chose her walk out entrance music.
“Let’s see if I’m still interested in this,” said Namajunas. “I just want to do something else with my life right now. I’m not going to make no decisions right now. It’s just hard to keep having fun with this.”
With the former champ, Jedrzejczyk, having already beaten Andrade at 115 pounds and fights like Michelle Waterson available, there are intriguing matchups in women’s MMA’s star division.
