UFC champion Rose Namajunas is dealing with a serious neck injury. This week, the strawweight titleholder appeared on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” on ESPN and revealed that she has been dealing with a handful of nagging injuries. One of them, according to Namajunas, is a “neck fracture.” The good news, however, is that Namajunas says she does not need surgery.
“Physically I’ve got some injuries that I’ve been dealing with for a while,” Namajunas said during the interview, via MMA NYTT. “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.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb3yUQ-Boj_/?taken-by=rosenamajunas
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb3yJUfBz_l/?taken-by=rosenamajunas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXlHTXll2RC/?taken-by=rosenamajunas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BeWX5d6B63s/?taken-by=rosenamajunas
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdyuai2BmhJ/?taken-by=rosenamajunas
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd27tCgBp58/?taken-by=rosenamajunas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYrABbbnsX7/?taken-by=rosenamajunas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUUjk9Kl9go/?taken-by=rosenamajunas
While Namjunas recovers from the injury, she hopes that a No. 1 contender will emerge.
“I will have to see how things play out,” Namajunas said. “I have no interesting 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.”
Currently, former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is the No. 1 ranked contender. However, Namajunas has defeated Jedrzejczyk in two consecutive bouts. Sitting at No. 2 is Jessica Andrade, who many believe should get the next title shot.
Claudia Gadelha, who recently defeated former champ Carla Esparza; Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who is on a two-fight winning streak; and Tecia Torres, who is set to fight Joanna Jedrzejczyk in July, round out the top five.
You can check out the full interview below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zkT4fXdYmk
