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Rose Namajunas' brother Nojus Namajunas is all set to make his professional MMA debut on March 27 at Mountain Force MMA, in Utah. Nojus started his amateur career with a split decision loss against Isaiah Hernandez in 2019. But in his next outing, Nojus scored a spectacular 57-second first-round TKO win over Robin Maggs at Fury Fighting Championship 37.
Nojus Namajunas began his combat sports journey on the same day as his younger sister, Rose Namajunas. Aged 6 and 4 respectively, Nojus and Rose took their first Taekwondo lesson from Great Grandmaster Chom Son Cho in Milwaukee. Speaking about the intensity of his initial training, Nojus Namajunas told MMA Junkie -
“(Cho) had us all line up in a row. He went all down the line. He would have us line up shoulder-to-shoulder all the way. He would go up to us and punch right in front of our faces, like an inch in front of our eyes. The idea was that you couldn’t blink when something is coming at you, so you could see, you know? That blink: If you blinked, you had to go do 10 pushups on your knuckles. He just did that for the whole class for the whole hour. We were just doing pushups until we figured it out.”
Nojus Namajunas has always taken inspiration from his sister
While Nojus Namajunas walked away from formal training at the age of 13 due to then-perceived gym politics, his sister would continue her pursuit of martial arts. Nojus started his own private piano studio where he instructed more than 40 students, while Rose Namajunas went on to become the UFC women's strawweight champion in 2018.
According to Nojus Namajunas, he continues to draw inspiration from Rose. Speaking of Rose's break into MMA, Nojus told MMA Junkie -
“When she got on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ show, I thought that was really awesome because that was her chance. That was her big break. She took that far. She took it all the way to a title shot. She lost that fight against Carla (Esparza), and from there, for some reason – I told her because I was actually at that fight; she was only like 22 – I was like, ‘Rose, you’re only 22. You’re so young. You don’t even get your full adult brain until you’re 26.’ That’s the main thing, that in my mind was inspiring because she was so young and she was already at the pinnacle of the sport.”
Rose Namajunas is set to face UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili at UFC 261.
