UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Rose Namajunas was last seen in the Octagon at UFC 223, defeating Joanna Jedrzejczyk by decision.
The women’s strawweight champion hasn’t been seen in action since due to a serious neck injury.
“Physically I’ve got some injuries that I’ve been dealing with for a while,” Namajunas said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “I had a neck fracture [actually] I have a neck fracture. I have some stenosis which means like, the spinal cord that goes through your vertebrae or whatever, the hole for it is a little smaller because of the fracture. Sometimes I was just getting real bad headaches every day in training camp and stuff like that and it was just the physical activity, sometimes it was just like the stress would aggravate it even more and like flying places really makes it worse and just stuff like that. So that’s been something I’ve just been focusing on, doing little exercises and stuff and just lots of rehab. There’s really not a lot of information out there.”
There has been no information given by Namajunas or anyone from her camp as to when the champion may return to action.
While the champion is out of action, one thing she wants to see is a clear contender emerge for the opportunity to challenge for the gold.
“Yeah, I dunno, I will have to see how things play out,” Namajunas said. “I have no interest in getting right back in there at the moment. I think I need to let things play out. I think honestly, the top-5, after beating Joanna twice and for her to be so far [ahead] and who knows how she will turn up against Tecia. She could hit her win one punch and she’s out so who knows. But the level that she’s at, it’s hard for me to see the top-5 and who the next contender is. I feel like the top-5 there needs to a clear contender.”
With the exception of Claudia Gadelha, every else in the women’s strawweight division top five is either booked in a fight or reportedly booked in a fight at the moment.
