Rose Namajunas has not spoken openly since her UFC 237 knockout loss to Jessica Andrade.
Since the loss, there were rumors of her retiring and not fighting again. Yet, all those can be put to rest as she says she will fight again but admitted she lost the passion for fighting following her two fights against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. But, she has now found the passion once again.
“I lost the passion for martial arts and fighting. Mainly for fighting,” a teary-eyed Namajunas said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “I found my passion again. I went back to Minnesota to see one of my coaches from early on in my amateur career — Greg Nelson. He’s just like a huge inspiration for me.
“It’s been tough. I think the reason why I wanted to retire was because this isn’t a job where you can go in half-assed and not be fully passionate about what you’re doing. There’s been times where I’ve not been totally confident in myself going into a fight and then I just pull it off or get through it.”
Part of the reason why she lost the passion was because she was champion and always focusing on that became too much.
“I made it into everything I didn’t want it to be,” Namajunas said. “I didn’t want the belt to define me and all I did was make it define me and that’s all that was on my mind every day. … It turned into a shackle and chain.”
Namajunas says she will return in 2020 but doesn’t know when or who it will be against.
