“Wasn’t going to do what her corner wanted”- Rose Namajunas describes what went through her head in her rematch against Carla at UFC 274
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Rose Namajunas
It is safe to say that Rose Namajunas vs Carla Esparza 2 surely did not live up to its hype. This rematch was in the making for more than 5 years as the two strawweights previously matched up to fight for the first-ever strawweight championship fight. However, their fight at UFC 274 for more than disappointing for fight fans as the two fighters put on a snooze-fest in the co-main event.
The fight had the least action on that card and was surely underwhelming to watch a title bout go down in such fashion. While Carla Esparza and her team have come to grips with the fact that the fight was not her best performance, team Rose Namajunas on the other hand believes “Thug Rose” did everything right in the fight despite losing the belt to Esparza.
Pat appeared on The MMA Hour hosted by Ariel Helwani to talk about the fight. “Rose stuck to the game plan,” said coach Barry who was in the corner along with coach Trevor Wittman for Rose vs Carla 2. “We had a strategy and she stuck to it for the first time ever. For the first time ever she stuck to the game plan and didn’t stray away.”
“I definitely didn’t feel like Carla won”- Rose Namajunas isn’t happy with the judges’ decision
Namajunas too spent some time answering Ariel’s questions, and she claimed in a retrospect, that she got everything she wanted out of that rematch. He stated, “Just in a general sense, I will say it just basically had to do with, I have my three goals. My base-level goal is come out unscathed, like happy, healthy, and safe. And then number two was obviously win the fight. And then … ultimately (it) was not only win but dominate and set myself apart from the rest of the division.”
Even though the fight went in Carla’s favor, Rose was satisfied with her performance, she added, “I didn’t feel like I won, but I definitely didn’t feel like Carla won and I definitely didn’t feel like I lost. It is kind of weird because usually when fights go the distance for me, like throughout the fight I’m thinking about, ‘OK, what are the judges seeing?’ I don’t think I was really thinking about that in this fight.”
“I was thinking about my goals of, I wanted Carla to know, one, I wasn’t going to do what her corner wanted me to do, because they kept wanting me to come out of my game plan, and then every time I’d step forward, they’d be like, ‘Oh, there’s her foot, OK, now she’s going to do the thing, because she’s going to crack because everybody’s booing.’ That’s what basically said in the corner,” Rose concluded.
Also read – “It’s a bummer”- Carla Esparza believes the Rose Namajunas rematch had tons of potential but under-delivered
Also read – “Sorry to everyone”- Rose Namajunas issues apology after losing her title to Carla Esparza at UFC 274
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Suryansh Thakur
(1600 Articles Published)