For all of the shocking headlines produced by last November's UFC 217 card in New York, featuring a trio of thrilling stoppage defeats in title fights, Rose Namajunas' supplanting of Joanna Jedrzejczyk was arguably the most compelling.
Jedrzejczyk (14-1), the long-reigning women's strawweight queen, was seemingly on the verge of both superstardom and Ronda Rousey's UFC record for title defenses by a female when she was violently upended by Namajunas via first-round TKO.
While the majority of the talk centered upon the flashy yet often inconsistent champion, Namajunas was victorious in the mental battle against throughout the fight's promotion. Even though Jedrzejczyk proved unable to intimidate her opponent, not enough has been said about the evolved striking of "Thug Rose," which produced a pair of knockdowns in just over three minutes of action.
Bright potential was something Namajunas, 25, had always shown in spades dating back to her run in 2014 on "The Ultimate Fighter." As a frenetic submission expert who offered UFC the tease of a good-looking, "Rousey of the lower weight classes" to market, her evolution took more years than most expected.
"My taekwondo is my base and the first thing that I started in [striking]," Namajunas told CBS Sports' "In This Corner" podcast. "It took time to develop. I don't know of any other taekwondo fighter that has made the transition into Muay Thai kickboxing, it always is the hardest transition at first. But then once you get it, it's like you have an unfair advantage in everything because now you can do it all."
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The version of Namajunas which confidently stalked and finished the iron-chinned Jedrzejczyk with her boxing was a scary sight to behold. So much so, that it has left oddsmakers wondering entering Saturday's rematch in the co-main event of UFC 223 in Brooklyn, whether the first fight was a fluke or instead a true passing of the torch.
Namajunas (7-3), who will officially enter the Barclays Center as a slight underdog, admits to not having "the cleanest undefeated record or anything," but said she has gained something important from each defeat, "adding it to my life experience." What it produced was an exceptionally well-rounded champion, with her punching and footwork under coach Trevor Wittman coming to age at almost the same time as her confidence and experience.
From her lopsided 2014 defeat at the hands of Carla Esparza in the UFC's inaugural 115-pound title bout, which doubled as Namajunas' UFC debut after a 3-0 run in TUF, she learned the lessons of patience and pace.
"I know it sounds obvious but I didn't know nearly as much as I know now," Namajunas said. "That sounds cliché but it's more experience. I play the game a lot better. I am way more experienced. That was always the thing going into all my fights as I was fighting people way more experienced than I was. That was the one kind of disadvantage that I always had. Now that bar is filled.
"You have to like unlearn habits. I think that's kind of what happened as to why maybe my striking hasn't really shown itself until just now. Against Carla, I was just kicking and it was go, go, go, go. I was just this young, tornado-like Tasmanian Devil fighter who was super explosive. Now, I'm way more calculated."
Following the loss to Esparza, Namajunas ran off three straight victories and entered a 2016 fight with Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 201 one win away from a shot at Jedrzejczyk. Instead, amid turmoil in her personal life during a private separation from fiancee and coach Pat Barry as he battled substance abuse issues, Namajunas came up short via split decision.
"[I learned that] no matter what, whatever is happening, whatever is going on, I'm going to show up and I'm going to fight," Namajunas said. "That's what I learned from it. I learned that timing is everything and that it just wasn't the right time for me."
Forced to go back to the drawing board in her return 11 months later, Namjunas emerged renewed and finished Michelle Waterson in second-round submission that perfectly set up by a head kick that floored her. The victory was so dominant, it catapulted her back into another title shot. It showcased how calculatingly dangerous Namajunas had become simply by lowering her output and saving her flash for the right moment.
"I was [previously] banned from kicking by Pat Barry, the kicking master," Namajunas said. "He told me not to kick and I listened to that. I wasn't able to kick until I fought Michelle Waterson and I ended up kicking her in the face. So now, as long as I don't overdue it, as long as I stick to the basics, the natural flashiness is going to come out as long. As long as I don't force nothing, my natural talent isn't going to come out on its own."
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Namajunas' ultimate test came in the form of Jedrzejczyk's mind games, which the champion has long used to intimidate and psyche up herself. Instead, Namajunas never broke, leaning on her self control and lack of fear, and the result seemed to produce the opposite effect of surprisingly breaking the Polish fighter.
"I just had her figured out, I know the type of fighter she is," said Namajunas, a native of Wisconsin whose family is of Lithuanian descent. "I know what her jab looks like. I know what her little flurries look like. Her personality, she's Eastern European. That's my family.
"I know what the mentality is like that no matter what, you act like nothing is hurt, you act like you are just stubborn. You just keep going forward and go, go, go; everything is good and you never have a bad day. That's just not true, man, you have got to have bad days. You have to have a goal. I just know her and know what she's about. I may not be her friend, I may not know her exactly but I have a good idea. I just had that educated guess and I guess that was right."
Namajunas said she hasn't kept current with the recent reveal from Jedrzejczyk, 30, that a brutal weight cut which included a shedding of 15 pounds over the final 14 hours contributed to the defeat. Her focus, instead, is on the rematch and continuing to be the face of this "new era" of combat sports she spoke of during the UFC 217 post news conference, where respect among competitors and acting the part of role model would be paramount.
Based upon the reaction Namajunas has received from her words, she's hopeful she can be part of a larger change.
"People cared more about what I said after the fight than what actually went down in the fight," Namajunas said. "Obviously, I did something right and obviously it needed to be said because there was just constant negativity surrounding us everywhere we look and just the way that I think people have been treating each other lately; not just in MMA but just in the world in general, there has been a lot of unnecessary negativity.
"I know sometimes people need to be honest with each other but a lot of people were just being shady for no real reason than not really being honest with themselves."
Namajunas has been through more as a fighter in just 10 pro fights than many have over an entire career. Considering her age and how complete her game has become both physically and mentally, it's a wonder whether a victory over Jedrzejczyk in their rematch could trigger a new era for women's MMA as a whole.
