Rose Namajunas denies trying to turn fans against Weili Zhang.
In the lead-up to the Zhang vs. Namajunas at UFC 261, Namajunas made some controversial comments about communism that the former champ believes turned fans against her. In Jacksonville, the Chinese fighter was booed as she was being announced ahead of challenging Zhang for the title. However, for Namajunas, she doesn’t think she turned any fans against Zhang.
“She can think what she wants to think. I don’t fault her for that,” Namajunas said on The MMA Hour. “A lot of what I do seems like it’s so genius and so, ‘Ooo!’ And it’s like, I’m just being myself, you know what I mean? I am a genius at what I do, but it’s because I’m truly just being honest and being myself.”
According to Rose Namajunas, she doesn’t think she is that smart to purposely say something to get inside someone’s head or get fans on her side. Instead, she says she just says what she truly feels and it’s up to the people to decide on how to take it.
“Yeah, I mean, you go in there with a game plan and you have a plan and stuff, but it’s a fight. I don’t sit around planning each and every step of the way. So whatever I said in my interview is what I said because that’s how I truly felt at that moment in time. I was worried that I was gonna get booed because of all the terrible press and video that I got. So if she wants to think that, she can think that, but she doesn’t have to,” Namajunas said.
In the end, Namajunas scored a first-round head kick KO to reclaim her strawweight title. The fight only lasted 78 seconds and the two will now rematch in the co-main event of UFC 268 on November 6 in Madison Square Garden.
Do you think Rose Namajunas turned fans against Weili Zhang?
