Rose Namajunas has explained why she didn’t let Joanna Jedrzejczyk get inside her head.
This past Saturday night (Nov. 4), Namajunas challenged Jedrzejczyk for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strawweight title. The bout was held inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was featured on the main card of UFC 217.
Namajunas won the bout with a stunning first-round finish. She explained to the media why she didn’t let Jedrzejczyk’s trash talk rattle her (via MMAFighting.com):
“I’ve had a lot of nightmares and dreams of just old memories haunting me and stuff. I don’t take it personally against her. That’s why they kept saying it’s just me that I’m fighting against. All the negativity that I felt coming from her, it just reminded me where I came from. I wasn’t gonna let that shut me down. She’s an awesome fighter and stuff, but I’ve dealt with a lot worse in my life.”
Namajunas said she’s actually happy that Jedrzejczyk called her “mentally unstable” in the buildup to the title fight.
“I’m kind of grateful that Joanna tried to poke at that, because now I was able to look into it and read books on it and kind of study it. Really try to understand what mental illness is. And I realize that we’re all pretty normal, we’re all kind of the same, we’ve all got our issues. But it’s something that we can get stronger at. Your mind is just like your body. It’s a muscle you can train and get better at.”
