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Rose Namajunas suffered a devastating knockout earlier this year when she headlined UFC 237 in Brazil. While she was dominating the fight, Jessica Andrade turned it around and slammed her on her head, instantly finishing Namajunas.
She's been somewhat silent since then and finally opened up about the recent happenings in her career and life. She revealed that she had lost her passion for the sport, but has since managed to regain it. She told ESPN's Ariel Helwani:
"I lost the passion for martial arts and fighting, mainly for fighting, but I found my passon again. I went back to Minnesota to see one of my former coaches in my amateur career."
She revealed why she wanted to retire -
"I wanted to retire because this isn't a job where you can go and half-a** and not be fully passionate about what you're doing. There have been times where I've not been totally confident in myself going into a fight but I just pull it off, get through it, push through it, like with injuries or being sick."
She said that her last knockout loss was "extra scary" -
"But this last time was extra scary because of what could have happened. Just pushing through something when you're not 100%. I wasn't sure if I was 100%. Of course, fighting is all I know, it's what I've been doing since I was a little kid"
Namajunas said that meeting her old amateur coach Greg Nelson helped put things into perspective and she's been very busy away from the spotlight. She said that before the Andrade fight, she felt she was in a shell and the reason she took the fight was to break out of all of that.
She stated that even after her loss to Andrade, she felt a sense of relief and added that even when she went to fights, she was genuinely enjoying herself.
Namajunas recently stated her desire to fight UFC Strawweight Champion Weili Zhang. She will, however, need a few more wins to face the champion.
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