What A Fight!!@RoseNamajunas
will face @ManonFiorot_MMA
at
#UFCParis!!Get your tickets 🎟️ https://t.co/vwLifSPSne pic.twitter.com/0b15gjUB9c
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope)
June 23, 2023
The former two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight
queen is taking her trade to a new division.
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According to
MMA Junkie on Friday, Rose
Namajunas (11-5) will be relocating to 125 pounds on Sept. 2.
At that
UFC Fight Night 226 event in Paris, she will be meeting top
contender Manon
Fiorot (10-1). News of this pairing has since been confirmed by
the UFC
shortly after it broke.
This will be the former 115-pound titleholder’s first trip back to
flyweight since she was an amateur, all the way back in 2011. “Thug
Rose” surrendered her throne to Carla
Esparza a second time in May 2022, dropping a razor-close split
decision to her nemesis. That defeat snapped an impressive
three-fight win streak, with a revenge decision over Jessica
Andrade followed by two victories over Weili Zhang
in 2021.
Fiorot has been a woman possessed since joining the roster in 2021,
racking up five straight wins over increasingly stiff competition.
A pair of knockouts over Victoria
Leonardo and Tabatha
Ricci springboarded her into a matchup against Mayra
Bueno Silva in later 2021. Upon emerging victorious on the
scorecards, this set “The Beast” up for higher-stakes matches
against Jennifer
Maia and Katlyn
Chookagian in 2022, both of which she passed to make her one of
the top-ranked women in her division.
UFC Fight Night 226, also known as UFC Paris, will be appropriately
held in Paris at the Accor Arena on Sept. 2. Headlining the fight
card will be a heavyweight fracas between Ciryl Gane
and Sergey
Spivak for a potential title shot. While the bout listing is
otherwise limited and the order is far from set, other featured
matchups include a light heavyweight tilt between Volkan
Oezdemir and Azamat
Murzakanov, and a pair of women’s bantamweight contests when
Nora
Cornolle makes her debut against Joselyne
Edwards while Zarah
Fairn dos Santos battles Hailey
Cowan.