Rose Namajunas Envisioned Head Kick That Finished Weili Zhang Prior to UFC 261

She didn’t necessarily know if it would end the fight, but Rose Namajunas had an inkling that she would connect with a head kick at some point during her matchup with Weili Zhang at UFC 261.

As it turned out, the head kick made Namajunas a two-time UFC champion, as she floored Zhang with the maneuver before ending their co-main event bout with follow-up hammerfists on the mat 1:18 into the opening stanza at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Forida, on Saturday night.

The setup for the kick was almost as nice as the execution: Namajunas feinted a low kick with her lead leg before going upstairs and connecting cleanly with her opponent’s chin.

“I felt really good. I was calm. I had to control myself and control my breathing and stay calm. She kinda touched me with the low kicks and she hit a nice little jab, but I just stayed calm. I don’t know how to explain it I guess,” Namajunas said.

“I saw her body fall over really stiff and I was like, oh dang that definitely worked a lot better than I thought it was going to. But I did see that kick landing in my mind leading up to this fight. I didn’t think that was going to be the finish, but that was one of many ways that I seen this fight going. As soon as she kinda turned over, I thought there was maybe a moment she could pop back up and wake back up again, but those hammerfists are just money and I knew it was over after that.”

In victory, Namajunas became the first repeat female champion in UFC history. In the past, luminaries such as Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm and Joanna Jedrzejczyk have attempted to regain titles they lost only to fall short. Namajunas, who initially contemplated retirement after losing her belt to Jessica Andrade, plans on defending the championship for the long haul while also fighting for a bigger cause.

“No matter who my opponents are, I want to defend this as many times as I can,” she said. “But what I really want to do is to use this to build MMA academies in a couple different locations, so that’s the idea and vision that I had this week. I always knew an idea of what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to work it into my career and so that’s my plan. I still have to go hash it out, but that’s my vision.”

For Namajunas, maintaining that motivation to compete ties in directly with her out-of-the-cage endeavors.

“I want to produce fruit with this seed that I’ve been given. I just want to give back, and I think that’s gonna be the main focus right now.”