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It has been 10 years since Rose Namajunas stepped into the cage for the first time and made her MMA debut.
Thursday marked the anniversary of her beginning her journey as a professional MMA fighter at Invicta FC 4 at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas on January 5, 2013.
'Thug Rose' submitted Emily Kagan via rear-naked choke at 3:44 of the third round to kick off her MMA career. It was a successful debut as she not only won the fight but was awarded a post-fight bonus for Submission of the Night.
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The event was stacked with women who ended up going on to become big names in the sport and achieve a great deal of success.
Among the women who competed at the event include Alexis Davis, Paige VanZant, Tecia Torres, Joanne Calderwood, Rawuel Pennington, Shayna Baszler, former strawweight champion Carla Esparza, and two-division UFC champion Amanda Nunes.
Namajunas continued her momentum at Invicta FC 5 as it only took 12 seconds for her to submit Kathina Catron via flying armbar, which awarded her a second straight Submission of the Night bonus.
'Thug Rose' then had a successful stint on TUF as she advanced to the finals but was submitted by Esparza, who became the inaugural UFC strawweight champion.
Despite the setback in the TUF 20 finale, she regrouped and eventually became a two-time UFC strawweight champion, with two wins over Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Zhang Weili.
What's next for Rose Namajunas?
Rose Namajunas last competed at UFC 274, where she lost her UFC strawweight championship to Carla Esparza via split decision.
The bout was a rematch of their encounter in the TUF 20 finale, but it was not well received. The fight was heavily criticized for its lack of action and the crowd booed the end result. Despite losing her title to 'Cookie Monster', Namajunas is still very much in the title picture at 115lbs.
'Thug Rose' has two wins against reigning champion Zhang Weili, and so the champion could want another attempt at avenging her losses and granting her a title shot. It will be interesting to see if her return fight is for the strawweight championship.
