When it comes to combat sports, the term "daring to be great" typically centers upon a fighter's willingness to take on dangerous challenges they don't have to.

It's a term more regularly associated with boxing, thanks in large part to the sport's lack of a central governing body, which often allows champions to set their own difficulty level regarding matchmaking. Outside of moving up or down in weight to pursuit greatness, it's a term not often mentioned in MMA. 

But from the standpoint of making an already difficult challenge even tougher than it has to be, what UFC women's strawweight champion Rose Namajunas has chosen to do on Saturday is certainly worthy of D2BG acclaim. 

Namajunas (8-3) will defend her 115-pound title against dangerous top contender Jessica Andrade (19-6) this weekend at UFC 237 in Rio de Janeiro. The kicker here is that Namajunas turned down the chance to face Andrade at UFC 235 in March and insisted that the fight be in the Brazilian native's home country. 

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No, the decision wasn't based on the 26-year-old Namajunas' need for more time to prepare. In fact, "Thug Rose" was fully healthy after having sat out since last April to recover from nagging injuries. 

This was about principle and the idea that making a challenge as difficult as possible will succeed in elevating herself to an even higher level of greatness. 

"That's just how I perform best. I think it's a great opportunity," Namajunas told ESPN's "The Ariel Helwani MMA Show" in February. "I'd love to fight in my own backyard, of course, but fighting is not about being comfortable."

Namajunas hasn't backed down on her stance at all in the months that followed, calling it an "honor" while mentioning former bantamweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey as the only other female champions to defend their titles as the away fighter in Brazil. 

Although Namajunas insists she will enter Brazil "with the intentions of finishing [Andrade] in dominant fashion," she was quick to amend anyone's expectations that she's entering as some form of stranger who is ready to spoil the hopes of an entire nation in a defiant and negative way by being victorious.

"So I think there is just this narrative out there that I'm going into hostile territory," Namajunas said. "I kind of just try to go with an open heart. It can't be all doom and gloom."

Controlling her emotions maintaining a positive aura has been a big part of Namajunas' growth into a championship fighter. Despite just 11 pro fights under her belt up to this point, the version of Namajunas that twice defeated former unbeaten champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk over the past two years is a far cry from the 21-year-old version of herself who lost the inaugural UFC strawweight title bout in 2014 against Carla Esparza in the TUF season 20 finale. 

For as much as the evolution of her boxing game under striking coach Trevor Wittman has been necessarily lauded in the aftermath of her first-round knockout win over Jedrzejczyk in 2017, it's a similar evolution of her mental toughness that has arguably been just as important. 

The trash talk leading into her first meeting against Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217 became so nasty (and completely one-sided) that many critics felt the former champion crossed the line with some of her comments about Namajunas' mental strength. 

"You know what? You're not strong mentally. You are mentally unstable, and you are broken already, and I will break you in the fight," Jedrzejczyk told Namajunas on the UFC 217 media teleconference.

In Jedrzejczyk's defense, she later claimed she was unaware of the history of mental health issues within Namajunas' family, including her father's absence and eventual death due to schizophrenia. Jedrzejczyk said she was just making reference to Namajunas' "mental games" and by saying she had "personal problems," wasn't referring to her mental health. 

Regardless, the test was one Namajunas passed with flying colors by not allowing the pressure to break her ahead of the fight. In fact, in the aftermath of her knockout win, she sought out a bigger role in mental health advocacy and spoke out against the negative culture between fighters that was allowed to manifest within UFC due to things like trash talking. 

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Namajunas could pull off a feat only accomplished by Ronda Rousey in women's MMA this weekend. USATSI

To Namajunas' point, she had a front-row seat, quite literally, to a situation where unchecked bravado went too far when Conor McGregor attacked a bus she was sitting on ahead of UFC 223 last April when he broke a window with a dolly in pursuit of Khabib Nurmagomedov. Although Namajunas was emotionally shaken from the experience, she was unhurt physically and went on to defeat Jedrzejczyk two days later in a hard-fought decision win. 

It's worth wondering whether the Namajunas of old would've been able to handle such chaos thrown her way. That's why she has become so focused on creating a positive culture around her when preparing for a fight. 

"I'm feeling really good right now. I put in a really long training camp and I've grown a lot," Namajunas said. "It's a very positive vibe and very positive energy right now and it's mainly because I just made a choice to be positive. I definitely spend a great majority of my camps beating myself up and just trying to be perfect and then I realize it's not about that. It's just about going there and just being myself and having fun with this. When I remember that and when I can harness that, I'm a really dangerous fight for anybody. 

"It's all in my head and it's about what I decide to make of things." 

A positive outlook is a nice start, of course. But there are many who believe she will need that and much more against such a meaning slugger in the 27-year-old Andrade, who is 6-1 since moving down to strawweight in 2016 and whose only loss came in a title bout to Jedrzejczyk the following year. 

All Andrade has continued to do since that loss is get better. Not only did she display tremendous heart to keep coming for all five rounds (and even rocking Jedrzejczyk late despite being down on the scorecards), she has gone on a reign of terror in her three fights since. 

After scoring an all-action decision win over former title challenger Claudia Gadelha and dominating Tecia Torres over three rounds, Andrade came back last September to demolish Karolina Kowalkiewicz (who owns a 2016 win over Namajunas) with the kind of brutal, one-punch knockout not typically seen in women's MMA. 

Not only has Namajunas been installed as the betting underdog on Saturday, her daring willingness to stage the fight in Andrade's backyard to make the challenge as difficult as possible simply can't be overlooked. 

"I feel like I'm in unchartered territory even though I have a lot of experience. There is a lot of things I do know but also a lot of unknowns," Namajunas told "The MMA Hour" last week. "I think just with my father not being in my life because of his mental illness and stuff, that's kind of a reminder for me to just try to reach my potential as much as possible. 

"Just because I can come up with all the excuses in the world to not do something -- I didn't have to take this fight, I didn't have to come to Brazil and leave my home to fight this girl, but at the same time it's a huge opportunity and it's a great way to reach my potential and give it a shot. And if that doesn't happen, then you know that's meant to be and that's really all there is to it. But I just have to do my best."