Rose Namjunas is the new UFC women’s strawweight champion.
There was a huge upset on the highly-anticipated UFC 217 card as Rose Namjunas finished Joanna Jedrzejczyk to become the new queen of the 115 lb division.
Jedrzejczyk entered into this contest as a confident belt-holder with a pristine professional record of 14-0. The Polish powerhouse was one more win away from equalling Ronda Rousey’s title record for female UFC champions. She had breezed past every other challenger with relative ease, apart from Claudia Gadelha, but she never fought Namajunas before.
25-year-old Namajunas came out with serious fire in her belly. ‘Thug’ surprised a lot of folks by having so much success on the feet in the early exchanges. The ‘Oh shit’ moment came when Jedrzejczyk was knocked down very early into the fight, but she managed to recover and get back to her feet.
However, she didn’t last much longer as Namajunas kept up the pressure and went in for the kill. She dropped her with another left hand and followed it up with ground and pound until Jedrzejczyk tapped while turtling up. Referee John McCarthy awarded her the victory at 3:03 of the first round.
THUG ROSE, THUG ROSE, THUG ROSE!
Unbelievable! Rose Namajunas stops Joanna Jedrzejczyk in the first round! 🏆#AndNew #UFC217 pic.twitter.com/tESuLvYSt0
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) November 5, 2017
Namajunas’ victory has breathed new life into a division that was quickly running out of title challengers. Her eyes were filled with tears as Dana White wrapped that coveted golden strap around her waist, but she remained humble in victory.
“I feel like a normal person, man. Just regular. Ain’t nothing special here.”
Simply incredible.
