“I wanna face my fears” - Fomer UFC champion Rose Namajunas addresses ‘scary’ move up to the UFC's 125-pound divison

Rose Namajunas recently opened up about her upcoming move to the 125-pound division, which will be something fresh for her career.

During her appearance on The MMA Hour, Namajunas shared her thoughts on her move to flyweight after a successful run at 115 lbs, which saw her become a two-time strawweight champion. She mentioned that she wants a new challenge and something that motivates her at this stage of her career.

She said:

"I want something that kinda scares me and I wanna face my fears and stuff. And it's also just always been a part of the plan."

Rose Namajunas on moving to 125lbs.
#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/Sw0klpBqe2

'Thug Rose' also brought up that she knew if things became repetitive then it would be time for a change. She mentioned that the move up to 125 lbs keeps her interested in fighting:

"Yeah, I could keep doing the same old thing. But man, as soon as it gets kinda redundant, like once this game gets redundant, like I could get bored really quick and that's not good for nobody, so I need to keep it fresh and interesting."

It will be interesting to see how Namajunas performs when she makes her flyweight debut against Manon Fiorot on September 2, and whether she can eventually join the list of elite fighters to become two-division UFC champions.

Rose Namajunas doesn't believe there is anything interesting for her at strawweight anymore

Rose Namajunas doesn't believe that there is anything interesting for her at strawweight anymore, which is one of the major factors in her decision to move up to flyweight.

During the aforementioned appearance, 'Thug Rose' shared her thoughts on the current landscape at 115 lbs. She noted that she has already defeated reigning champion Zhang Weili as well as top contenders like Jessica Andrade. The former two-time strawweight champion mentioned that she could have remained at strawweight and fought Weili for a third time, but it wouldn't excite her like other challenges would.

"[Zhang] Weili's the champ now, so then what? I fight her a third time? You know what I mean, like I donno it's not very interesting. I've already fought [Jessica] Andrade and this and that...Yeah, Weili's the champ, so it's like, 'Okay, I could just beat her again', but I don't know, to me it's just more than that."

Rose Namajunas was emotional after becoming strawweight champion for a second time 🏆 #UFC261 pic.twitter.com/Ytl6jiTvJI