MMA Fighting - Rose Namajunas On What's Next, Not Ruling Out 125lb Move, Possible Valentina Shevchenko Fight

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

Rose Namajunas speaks with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck to give an update on her career since her UFC title loss to Carla Esparza, discuss why she's not ruling out a possible move to 125 pounds and a fight with Valentina Shevchenko, and her recent partnership with Polaris RZR. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster,

The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible.

To the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, let us say hello to the former two-time UFC strawweight champion, Thug Rose, Nama Yunus. Not only is she one of the best 115 pounders on planet Earth, but she continues apparently to tap into her adventurous spirits, which we'll talk about in a little bit.

Rose, it's great to see you. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Just, you know, taking care of lots of business outside of, you know, fighting. Just so everything's a little busy and all over the place. But it's, I'm truly blessed and just grateful to just be living my life and take a little bit of time just to not worry about somebody punching me in the face. There you go.

Thank you for doing this. And I want to thank the fine folks involved with Polaris RZR for helping to put this all together, which is where we can start because I was made aware of this new partnership several weeks ago, where the concept of this was to put you in the passenger seat of one of these off-road vehicles and let you experience the fun and the craziness of what it has to offer. So how did this come together for you? What did you think of it when this opportunity was sent in your direction? Well, you know, my manager, Brian, kind of just threw it at me.

The opportunity came to the, you know, on my table. And I was just instantly like, yes. It's funny because he originally thought, like, maybe I wasn't going to be into something like that. But it was, and he probably was right off of first, you know, impression. But because I'm more into, like, Obviously, fighting for me is as much of adrenaline rush as I need. I think outside of the fighting, I'm more, you know, try to just do things to calm myself a little bit. But recently I had been, you know, a teammate of mine and my coaches, or a coach and a teammate of mine as well, they both ended up getting into these type of vehicles.

and so I kind of been like not pure pressure, but sort of tempted into getting one of these or at least just like trying it out. And so yeah, it was kind of like the perfect timing for everything because I had just been like looking at them and thinking about them. And then bam, it just the opportunity fell in my lap. So I did not hesitate to take the opportunity.

So when I first heard about this, you teaming up with Razor, I was told that the goal of this was literally to scare you, it was to scare the heck out of you. And I know as someone who goes into a cage and fights other human beings, it might take a lot to do that. But was that accomplished here? Were you, was scared the right word?

Or how would you describe it? I would say, I mean, I guess, I guess it depends. You know, there's different kinds of scary. And I would say it was the healthy level of scariness. You know, I obviously, like, I felt pretty safe because I had. had the professional drive in and he was, you know, super amazing and super kind and just made me feel very safe. But yeah, I mean, I think it would be a little bit scary if I had to take the wheel and if I was, you know, jumping the jumps or maybe if we did a backflip or something.

So I was definitely like scared, but like having fun, I just screamed the whole time. It was, it was amazing. How long was the ride for? How long did you get to stay on there for? So I felt like we were like driving for kind of on and off for like an hour because we were filming. So like sometimes we had to like redo some things. But I think we went the course like the first shot to just get my initial reaction. I believe we went around like maybe three or four times. And so it was probably like a good solid 20 minutes of me just screaming.

And my voice was pretty, pretty gone after that. But there you go. hopefully we get to see some video of this. That would be amazing. I know you're doing all these other things. So I'm curious because we last saw you compete in May, UFC 274, came up short on the scorecards. Carlos Sparza wins the title.

And I know you were on my colleague, Ariel Hulani show, talking about it with Pat. And, you know, there's a lot of reaction to that interview. But, you know, outside of your off-road adventures, what has life been like since the fight with Carla and just doing stuff behind the scenes, you know, not really fighting related. What have you been up to? Yeah, I've been very busy. And it's been pretty awesome. I wouldn't necessarily like, yeah, I just, I've been kind of like,

I've gotten some, like, sort of other opportunities that have, just things that I didn't have time for, family, even just like the boring stuff, like taxes and all that stuff. I'm just trying to like get rid of uh or i should say catching up on the things that i've like you forget about when you're just like thinking about um accomplishing things being successful kind of like the fighter lifestyle that's very selfish and you kind of need to just put everything else on hold so i've been i've been catching up on family time um maybe just like investing my money into some things um and then also i've i've had um i'm working on some different um i guess side gigs and things like that. And I will, I'm getting ready for a photo shoot also coming up this weekend,

but I won't say, I won't say who it is or what it's going to be because it's just going to be something to look forward to. I'm crossing my fingers that it goes through because it's going to be very, it's a very big ordeal. In my opinion, it's like kind of a childhood dream of mine. And so yeah, I'm very excited about just lots of, I think things are brewing. Also, I've been very busy in my garden. That's been very busy. Luckily, we've been getting rain here in Colorado. That hasn't

usually that's like non-existent. So I haven't been like too tied down to the garden as much because nature is sort of taking care of things for me. But I also went on like a mini little vacation. I went to you know, shout out to Umpa Cabre's farm.

It's a cattle farm. They do like grass grazing you know, all organic cow meat and stuff like that. And I've been trying to go out there for like years now. But every time I'm just like in a training camp and I can't go out there. And so we rode some horses. We ended up hanging out.

And yeah. So it's a lot of different things. So you're obviously very busy. So like on a scale of one to 10, what do we like how far are you looking ahead in terms of your fighting future? Like we had a five? Like where are we looking as far as that goes? So I made a decision.

to take off the sun like win or lose going into the last fight i knew i was going to take some time off um i knew i was going to at least take the summer off and then once we're getting close to the fall i would say around like september i'll know exactly what i'm doing um i have been training a little bit like um but not like super consistent um i even had this like little shoulder like kind of issue that i've sort of been trying to rehab and stuff but uh and then there was this girl. Isis, who just won her Invicta fight recently. She came

in town and so I got to train with her. So like just little stuff. I'm like trying to stay active without like totally just being on the couch completely. But I the thing that I do know for a fact, I don't know when exactly I might fight again. But I do know that I want to do a grappling match of some sort. I want to really

you know, rack up some experience in that. apartment. And so yeah. And I'm also, once I get sort of my other things in order, just like life stuff, I think I will be lifting lots of weights and trying to just maybe put on like a little more muscle and just kind of see what happens from there. Okay. So we're going to put on a little muscle. Does that mean like you just want to be a straw weight with a little more like muscle to you? or are we thinking about maybe bouncing around a little bit? Like maybe you'll enjoy lifting weights and you'll you'll like it a lot and maybe you'll be a

flyway. Like what do we think it on that aspect? I don't know. You do the math. Okay. All right. Yeah. You can, yeah.

I don't know. I honestly really don't know because like I said, I think just one step at a time. And like I haven't even, you know, they kind of, the UFC's given me some offers for things. and I'm just like, I just need the time to the summer just to like not think about fighting at all. And then I'll, you know, in the fall, I'll kind of do like lay out everything and see what makes sense. But definitely like I'm really interested in grappling, you know, in the near future. And so whoever is out there that can, you know, that I can sort of challenge and I want to get good at footlocks, I want to get, because obviously like in the grappling world, that's like become huge.

and stuff. And it's sort of come full circle again to where, like, people now know how to defend them. And so now it's, like, kind of a more complete game again. So I kind of want to dive deep into the grappling world and then from there, you know, work my way back to you. I like it. A lot has actually happened at 1.15 since that fight because we saw Zhang beat Yowana and then Yowana retired from the sport. And I know the rivalry you had with her, like that first fight you two had, the stare down at ceremonial wayans, the performance you had, becoming a UFC champion for the first time. Then you ran it back during one of the craziest fight weeks in UFC history.

When you found out that she was calling it a career, how did you react to that? And what are those two fights, the builds to those two fights, what does that mean to you when you look back of your career? You know, honestly, like I was very happy that she did call it. Quit. Well, not quits, I shouldn't say it, but just it was like, hey, this is good because I feel like she had already accomplished so much.

Even, I think even, she could have even called it, you know, and before that, but I know she's such a warrior that she just loves, she just loves fighting. And so, yeah, so it's whatever. I think whatever makes her happy, I'm happy to see that. I've always been grateful for what she's done for the sport, what she's done for my career. as far as like, you know, um, elevating me and then also pushing me because like she was kind of the standard as far as what I would had been chasing for many years. So, um, so there's, there's definitely lots of gratitude towards her. And obviously we, we've, we've had our rivalry and there's been times

where, you know, obviously all I want to do is punch her in the face. And then it's like, you know, now to see her kind of to see everything full circle, I'm very happy for her. I want, um, only the best for her and for her to be, yeah, just kind of happy in life and with her. And just I hope that she knows that, you know, and I know she knows that her career was amazing and everybody inspired many people. A couple more things. And I'll let you go. Thank you.

I really appreciate the time. But it seems like after that win for Zhang, it looks like it's going to be her and Carla fighting for the title. And you've spent almost, you actually spent over an hour in the Octagon combined with both of those two women. So I'm curious, like, how you would break that fight down from sort of an analytical perspective. Like, how do you see that one playing out? Um, I think I'm probably, I haven't really given it much thought, but my, um, feelings are that Waley will not really have much problems in that fight. I, I think she'll, um, no, you know, I need,

Carla is very interesting because she's very unassuming and things like that. And obviously, I think our fight was sort of an anomaly the last one because like we both had some concerns about not messing up our faces and getting bloody and stuff like that but i don't know if she'll necessarily have that concern going into the to a fight with waley but i do feel like wayley's just on a different level skill wise and and all that stuff as long as she doesn't get like hockey or anything like that i think she she should become the new champion and then last thing I know you're focusing on what you're focusing on. So you're taking the summer off.

Maybe the fall will start thinking about what we're going to do. We're going to be lifting the weights and putting on some muscle and things like that. In terms of your career, because you seem very free right now. You seem very happy with everything that's going on. It seems like a lot of this is, you know, just to challenge yourself. You want to challenge yourself with grappling. It seems like even at this point of your career, like you just want like things that will challenge you and get you excited. So before you sort of turn the chapter and that power of your life,

Like what is the biggest challenge that you could face in the UFC or in MMA? Like, what do you think sort of stands out to you? Like, I could call it a career if I have this fight or do you have this moment? What do you think if you could reflect on that? I don't know. Yeah, I would have to give it some thought, you know, because I, yeah, I did accomplish. Like, you know, I already became the champion. offended it, lost it, got it back. So I'm already like, you know, Hall of Fame. Like,

that's already, that's already, you know, in the books. The history is already written. So that's going to take some time to reveal itself, you know, what could challenge me. I think, shoot, I don't know. I don't know. I'll have to come back to you on that one. Well, there you go. Maybe you and Valentina someday. Would that be, would that be something? I mean, I know you're not thinking about that right now, but would that be something that might interest you? You know, so I love Valentina. I think that she's the, I think she's the, in my opinion, like, it's weird because I always forget that Amanda Nunes is like the women's goat of like of all female MMA. But like Valentina's like if she just keeps doing what she's doing, she's really, you could argue.

make that case as well. And so, gosh, like, in order for me, and I also, I do have, like, I consider myself to be Valentina's friend. Like, we trained a lot together. So that would be something that, like, it would have to be, we, like, we'd have to be set up for, for, not for life, but, like, it would have to be for a very good reason for me to want to just, like, to want to even.

try to, I don't know, like to even step to her plus, she's a, she's a, she is amazing in all, in all, uh, in all ways. And, um, I have felt what she feels like in practice. I know a fight is a totally different thing. So, you know, that, that would be hard for me to say, like, obviously as a, um, as a martial artist, like that would be, uh, a, I don't know how to, to say it like that would that would definitely be very interesting. But I guess in theory, you know, so yeah, I don't know yet. It'd be lucrative. It'd have to be very lucrative, right? Yes, yes, because like I want to, I love Valentina. I think she's, I consider her to be my friend. And so, like, that is something that I never really had a problem with being cordial and things like that was people that I was going to fight and everything like that.

And even I've maintained friendships with people that I fought, maybe not for very long, but for the most part, like, I don't, I never had the issue of, like, fighting a teammate or anything like that to me. It's like, but when it comes to, but now I think I've started to think a little bit differently. about fighting at this point in my life. And so that would be kind of difficult, like emotions and things like that. But I just feel like I'm a different person now. So, yeah, I would have to think about it. But, I mean, definitely, like, to, she is,

just as a pure martial artist, like, skill-wise, like, that would be every, like, in order, you have to be at the top of your game in order to even step to her. So that would be very motivating just to make sure that, you know, is as good as like to be my highest potential, you know, at all possible. Well, I appreciate you talking about this because I know there's like a million other things you'd rather be talking about. You're taking the summer off from this crazy world of MMA. You're taking a little bit of retrain a little bit.

But thank you so much for the time. I'm glad we're able to do this. Glad you enjoyed your ride on the Polaris Razor. And from what I understand, when the video, the video will. be released on the Polaris ORV YouTube channel so we get to see you lose your voice, screaming with the thrill of riding on one of those off-road vehicles. So enjoy the rest of your summer, Rose, enjoy the time of the garden and everything else you got going on and all the best to you. I thank you so much for the time. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

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