2. Beat Up By “Thug” Rose
Rose Namajunas is a savage, and she demonstrated that when she got her shot against VanZant.
Namajunas made it all the way to the finals of TUF20, the season that would decide the inaugural UFC strawweight champion. Namajunas would lose in the finals to Carla Esparza, but shortly afterwards Joanna Jedrzejczyk would prove that the tournament was all just to determine who would be the first to drop the belt to her.
Originally this fight was supposed to be between Joanne Calderwood and VanZant, but a late injury put Namajunas in the mix. The fight also got a little bit more intriguing when VanZant was prevented from shaving her head as she had stated she would. PVZ let it known on Twitter that she was planning on shaving her head to raise money for cancer research, only she never ended up doing it and there are some conspiracy theories as to why. The unconfirmed rumour is that the UFC or Reebok (or both) greatly encouraged VanZant not to go through with the head-shaving. Namajunas however, decided she was going to shave her head. Nobody stopped “Thug” Rose from this, and it ended up contributing to what would become a somewhat marketable look for her.
Namajunas would beat up and then submit VanZant in the bout, but the heart PVZ showed during the fight proved to many that she has resiliency, and doesn’t mind getting her face mangled up a bit. In a way this bout proved VanZant is a fighter more than any of her victories do.
