Rose Namajunas develops grappling and builds muscles before returning to the Octagon

The former two-time UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Rose Namajunas has always been an underdog even for her division. However, this did not prevent her from scoring several knockouts over fighters such as Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Weili Zhang.

After her second loss to Carla Esparza at UFC 274 in May, the 30-year-old MMA fighter took some time off to work on her grappling skills and put on some muscle.

“I still don’t know when I’ll fight again, but I’ll definitely do some grappling”, said Rose Namajunas. “I want to gain more experience in that direction. Once I get my life in order, I’ll continue to lift weights and put on some muscle. And I’ll see where things go from there”, added she.

More muscle could force Rose Namajunas to move up to the Featherweight division, where is the champion Valentina Shevchenko.

“Valentina is my friend and I’ll need a pretty good reason to fight her. She’s always been great in training. In a fight it will be different. As a martial artist, I definitely think it will be interesting. But I don’t know yet. It’s going to be hard for me to deal with the emotions”, said Rose Namajunas.

Rose Namajunas has a personal MMA record of 11-5-0 (W-L-D).