Former Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight
queen Rose
Namajunas is taking another crack at flyweight.
On Wednesday, MMA
Hoje first broke the story that Amanda
Ribas (12-4) would be throwing down with Namajunas (11-6). The
initial claim was that the two would headline a May 23 show—this
would fall on a Thursday—and it was corrected to March 23. The two
flyweights will serve as the headliner for the
UFC Fight Night show on that date, which will post up in Las
Vegas at the UFC Apex. This high-stakes pairing has since been
confirmed by
other outlets on Friday.
Brazil’s Ribas has alternated wins and losses in her last seven
outings, switching back and forth from flyweight to strawweight. As
a result, she currently holds the
no. 12 spot at 125 pounds and the
no. 14 place at strawweight on Sherdog’s Official Rankings. In
her return to strawweight after three trips fighting up at
flyweight, Ribas landed the first spinning wheel kick in UFC
women’s divisional history when she put Luana
Pinheiro away in November 2023. Her previous jaunt at flyweight
did not go smoothly, as she prevailed against Viviane
Araujo but came up short to Katlyn
Chookagian and suffered a knockout at the hands and elbows of
Maycee
Barber.
Namajunas, a two-time champion at strawweight, shifted up in weight
for the first time in her career at UFC Fight Night 226 in Paris.
“Thug Rose” dropped a decision to Manon
Fiorot to put her on the second losing streak of her
career—both such streaks include a loss to Carla
Esparza. Namajunas first won the belt in 2017 when she crushed
Joanna
Jedrzejczyk, and she ended up winning it back in 2021 by
punting Weili Zhang
with a head kick.
The currently unnumbered UFC Fight Night event on March 23 will be
held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. In addition to the newly
announced Ribas-Namajunas headliner, featured fights of Julian
Erosa vs. Ricardo
Ramos and Davey Grant
vs. Cody
Gibson at featherweight and bantamweight, respectively, will
serve on the lineup.