Rose Namajunas, the current UFC women’s strawweight champion, is preparing to defend her belt in a rematch against Zhang Weili. Both fighters will go up against each other at UFC 268.

In the build-up to the fight, Namajunas did an interview with journalist Ariel Helwani. Along with discussing the fight, she also talked about how she stays mentally strong. The current champion in the past has talked about going through tough times mentally and discussed it further.

During the interview, she was asked about what gets her down, and how does she come back from it. She said, “I think not realizing, every day is a gift, every day is a blessing. Just not counting your blessings. I think it’s fear and anxiety and sometimes depression. I notice the patterns I go through and it’s like I’ll be fearing something in the future, and I’ll get anxious and worry about it.”

“I’ll get myself so tired that I’ll get depressed. Because I’m so tired, I just sat there worrying about it and didn’t do anything about it, and then I’ll get sad on myself, and then I’ll be like I gotta do something or I’ll get anxious again. I think it’s identifying what your fears are and figuring out what you can do about it, pray and do something about it,” she added.

‘Thug Rose‘ has struggled with mental health before. She had a turbulent childhood and grew up in a tough neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her journey to the top of the strawweight division has been a tough one.

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Journey to the top of the division

Rose Namajunas is the queen of UFC’s strawweight division. She won the title against Zhang Weili at UFC 261 via a first-round knockout. This was the second time she won the title, after winning it for the first time at UFC 217.

However, after winning the belt for the first time and then retaining it 5 months later, Namajunas went up against Jessica Andrade for her second title defense. She started the fight well, dominating her opponent in the first round. But things turned bad for her fast as Andrade knocked her out with a slam 2 minutes into the second round.

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After the fight, ‘Thug Rose’ was contemplating retirement. During her post-fight interview, she said, “I just want to do something else with my life right now. I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m not going to make any decisions right now. I don’t know. It’s just hard to keep having fun with this.”

But she soon bounced back from the loss and fought Andrade again at UFC 251. She won the fight via split decision and went on to challenge for the title again. Before her fight with Weili, while being introduced, everyone could see Namajunas calling herself the best. That shows her confidence in herself and channeling the confidence.

She defeated Weili with a left head kick knockout to become a two-time UFC strawweight champion.

What do you make of the journey of Rose Namajunas? How do you think her fight with Zhang Weili plays out? Let us know in the comments!

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