Rose Namajunas doesn't want to overtake Manon Fiorot in the title fight

Rose Namajunas has no plans to surpass Manon Fiorot for the flyweight title shot.

Namajunas moved up to flyweight after losing her strawweight title to Carla Esparza via split decision in 2022. “Thug” suffered a hard-fought unanimous decision loss to Fiorot in her flyweight debut the following year. Since then, Namajunas has earned back-to-back decision victories over Amanda Ribas and Tracy Cortez and gained prominence in the title conversation.

Namajunas is scheduled to face top contender Erin Blanchfield in the co-main event of UFC Edmonton at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. A win would likely make Namajunas a potential contender for the next gold medal at 125 pounds against Valentina Shevchenko. While Shevchenko is a training partner of Namajunas, “Thug” wouldn’t mind getting paid for what they would do in training anyway.

“That would be my dream match,” Namajunas told ESPN. “Of course I’m a big admirer of (Shevchenko). As a martial artist, I think she is the best female martial artist, and in general I had a goal of becoming a two-division champion when I started. And here we are, so it's kind of my final goal… I really admire her and respect her a lot. So that would be kind of strange. But we also train together. So it would be like at least we get paid for what we do.”

However, Fiorot is currently undefeated in seven UFC outings, including wins over Namajunas and Blanchfield. Barring a spectacular finish over Blanchfield, Namajunas doesn't see himself in a position to overtake Fiorot for the next flyweight title shot.

“I think after Manon (Fiorot), yes,” Namajunas said. “And I think (if) in a spectacular way, then of course. I saw a lot of headlines saying I wanted to skip (Fiorot)… I never said that. I think she deserves to be next, but after that I definitely want to be next.”