Rose Namajunas is a star in the UFC, but her journey hasn’t been easy. She was even abused as a child. What’s her story?

Rose Namajunas is now the UFC champion, but she has had her ups and downs. She’s had to deal with a lot of adversity in her life, in addition to which it reflects on her personality. What is the story of the phenomenal “Thug Rose”?

Namajunas has combativeness in her blood

Rose Namajunas was born in Milwaukee, USA, however, her family has roots in Europe, specifically in Lithuania. It is in this European country that her family has a very interesting history, which is why the current UFC champion is a staunch anti-communist.

Great-grandfather Namajunas Juozas was a member of the Lithuanian army, making it to the rank of lieutenant. He was in the resistance during the Soviet invasion of Lithuania in 1939, and had to enlist in the Red Army after the country was occupied.

When the Germans declared war on the Soviets, he was able to go into civilian life, as the Soviets had left the Baltics. However, when the war ended and the USSR reoccupied Lithuania, Juozas was arrested, sent to a prison camp and killed by KGB agents near his home in 1968.

Her grandfather, Algimantas Andriukonis, was a successful wrestler for a change, becoming Lithuanian champion, but also winning competitions in the USSR. Rose Namajunas still visits Lithuania and speaks Lithuanian.

Namajunas could have dreamed of an easy childhood

As mentioned above, Rose Namajunas grew up in Milwaukee. Unfortunately, she spent a good part of her childhood without her father, who suffered from schizophrenia and abandoned the family. He died in Germany when Rose was 16 years old.

As far as life in Milwaukee was concerned, Namajunas lived in a rough neighborhood, so from a young age she had to witness various forms of violence. Her mother worked a lot, her brother hardly ever came home. So she had to fend for herself. That’s how she got the nickname “Thug Rose”. She was the only white girl among her friends, and she was the smallest, yet she was the toughest of them all.

Unfortunately, she was sexually abused as a child. She never talked much about the details, which is hardly surprising. She suffered her share when Joanna Jedrzejczyk took advantage of this fact in a shake-up before a mutual fight.

Namajunas started martial arts at an early age

Rose Namajunas was driven to combat sports from an early age. Moreover, she had a very comprehensive upbringing. At the age of 5 she started training taekwondo, and at the age of 9 she received her junior black belt. Then she took up karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

In high school, Namajunas then started training kickboxing, MMA, and in her senior year she started wrestling.

Namajunas and MMA

Rose Namajunas had her first amateur MMA fight in 2010. She scored a 4:0 record among amateurs, which got her noticed by the all-female MMA organization Invicta. There, she needed just three fights to claim the opportunity to fight for a contract in the UFC.

It’s worth noting that Namajunas lost her third fight at Invicta, but won her previous two.

Namajunas and the UFC

Rose Namajunas got into the UFC through The Ultimate Fighter series. In late 2013, it was announced that she would be fighting for a contract. In the pyramid she successively defeated Alex Chambers, Joanne Calderwood, Randa Markos and in the finals she fell short to Carla Esparza, who she will defend her title against in May.

After the loss to Esparza, Namajunas scored three straight wins, only stopped by Karolina Kowalkiewicz in a match that should have put the winner in the title fight. So the American with Lithuanian roots had to wait a little longer for her title shot. But she only waited a year.

After a win over Michelle Waterson, she lived to fight Polish legend Joanna Jedrzejczyk, until then an undefeated fighter. She managed to knock her out in the first round and became the 2017 champion. In the rematch, she was able to defend her title.

However, she lost the belt in 2019 when Jessica Andrade dethroned her. But she lost the title in her next fight and so a rematch was offered to challenge the new champion, Weili Zhang. Namajunas won the rematch and faced a tough challenge.

However, Zhang got a great first round highkick from Namajunas and it was all over. It should be mentioned that Namajunas was very motivated to win, the Chinese woman represented communism for her and so the match was personal from her point of view. She also defended the title in the rematch.

After that, she had a match with Esparza. As she has shown more than once in her career, she is good at rematches. She’s always won the second match against the same opponents.

But in this case, she failed and lost the title. But she’ll definitely do her best to get it back as soon as possible.

Source: Bleacher Report, UFC, ESPN, Sherdog