Rose Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk have battled it out in two past fights with the UFC strawweight title on the line but now the former opponents may soon call each other training partners.
In the wake of her loss to Carla Esparza at UFC 274, Namajunas isn’t interested in sitting on the sidelines and sulking about her defeat because she’s already expressed interest in traveling to Florida to help Jedrzejczyk in her final preparations for a rematch against Zhang Weili on June 11.
Namajunas’ coach and fiancé Pat Barry mentioned the possibility during an appearance on The MMA Hour, which prompted the ex-strawweight champion to give her thoughts on working with a past rival.
“I didn’t totally make that decision in my mind yet but I was just thinking about it,” Namajunas said about working with Jedrzejczyk. “Nothing personal against Weili or anything but you know Henry Cejudo was kind of talking some crap before our rematch. I’m just kidding.”
Namajunas currently sports a 2-0 record against Zhang after delivering a stunning head kick knockout in their first fight and then scoring a split decision victory in the rematch just over six months later.
As for Jedrzjeczyk, she lost a razor-close split decision to Zhang when they clashed in a back-and-forth war that was ultimately named the Fight of the Year in 2020.
The rematch will take place over three rounds instead of five rounds but Jedrzjeczyk is anxious to avenge her loss with hopes that a win will secure her the first shot at new strawweight champion Carla Esparza.
According to Jedrzejczyk, she would absolutely be interested in working with Namajunas even after they’ve fought twice previously and may meet again in the future one day.
“A few days ago I got a message from Mike Brown that Rose wanted to get in touch with me,” Jedrzejczyk revealed. “I was like ‘what Rose?’ and he said ‘Namajunas.’ I was like of course give her my number. Yesterday or two days ago I saw a message from Pat Barry and it went to the spam on my Instagram but I responded and I am very open to do this.
“Cause it’s my last two and a half weeks in Florida because I am flying to Singapore May 29 because I want to go there early to adjust to the time, adjust to the climate, the humidity and I want make everything the right way. I want everything to be done very good. If she mentioned that, that’s good. Let me reach out to the number, to my coaches and see what we can do.”
Jedrzejczyk is currently putting the finishing touches on a long training camp that dates back to January when she first traveled from her home in Poland to the American Top Team facility in Florida with anticipation that she would be fighting soon.
She eventually booked the rematch with Zhang at UFC 275 after inking a new multi-fight contract with the promotion. All signs are pointing towards the fight crowning a No. 1 contender in the division after UFC president Dana White hinted at that fact following Esparza’s win over Namajunas this past weekend.
