Rose Namajunas continued to show herself as a menace within the flyweight division with one other all-around efficiency to beat Tracy Cortez within the UFC Denver important occasion.
It was one other spectacular exhibiting for the previous strawweight as she largely dominated the hanging and grappling exchanges all through the battle. Namajunas’ finest second got here early within the battle when she dropped Cortez to the canvas within the opening spherical, however she wasn’t in a position to get the end and didn’t discover one other opening like that for the rest of the battle.
Nonetheless, Namajunas confirmed off all of her expertise with the judges giving her the unanimous determination win with the scorecards studying 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 in her favor.
“I knew she was going to be actually robust,” Namajunas mentioned about Cortez. “I feel I ought to have possibly simply let her up [after the knockdown] however she was good at getting her guard. I knew her wrestling was actually good. I used to be hesitant to wrestle an excessive amount of however I simply stored feeling profitable there. I simply stored going to it.”
Pace was the distinction for Namajunas firstly of the battle as she stored launching straight punches at Cortez, who wasn’t using a lot head motion in her protection. A stiff jab stored paying off with Namajunas simply selecting and selecting her pictures till she threw that very same punch adopted by a hook behind it that sat Cortez all the way down to the bottom within the opening spherical.
Namajunas adopted her to the canvas, however when she knew the end wasn’t going to occur, the two-time strawweight champion instantly obtained again to her ft once more.
On the restart within the second spherical, Cortez lastly discovered a bit extra rhythm together with her hanging, which additionally allowed her to arrange a takedown try however she misplaced place fairly rapidly because the fighters obtained again up once more. Whereas Namajunas wasn’t fairly as efficient together with her arms, she nonetheless linked with the higher combos and even managed a slick takedown of her personal.
Namajunas continued to show to her grappling to indicate her superiority over Cortez in each side of the sport. She maintained management, advancing to mount after which taking the again when Cortez tried to scramble free. Nonetheless, from there, Namajunas wasn’t in a position to do a lot harm or snatch a submission. Nonetheless, Namajunas widened the hole in what was turning into a demoralizing evening for Cortez.
Because the battle moved into the ultimate two rounds, Namajunas picked her moments by both standing on the surface and launching long-distance assaults or constantly threatening with the takedown. Even within the moments when Cortez obtained off first within the hanging exchanges, she stored developing simply brief together with her punches.
Regardless of urging from her nook to go for broke, Cortez couldn’t put collectively sufficient harm to harm Namajunas, who stored circling away with quick footwork and stable protection till the ultimate horn sounded.
General, Namajunas has continued to acclimate herself to a brand new division with two straight important occasion wins at flyweight as she continues to work her means up the rankings. As a former UFC champion, Namajunas would clearly love so as to add one other title to her assortment … even when maybe it’s a brand new belt the UFC creates for the ladies.
“Give me the belt, I would like it,” Namajunas mentioned. “Perhaps a girls’s ‘BMF,’ I don’t know.”
