Usman can solidify his claim as the greatest welterweight in UFC history ahead of Georges St-Pierre should he beat Covington for the second time.

“I have a stronger support system and I make sure that I have a proper amount of quiet time.

“I’m definitely more comfortable with it, but just with my personality, it’s always going to be a little bit of a challenge,” the 29-year-old Namajunas said. And, buzzcut and all, she feels more at ease in her own skin.

Namajunas laughed when she said she still has days where “I never want to do this again,” but she has a long-term vision of what she wants to accomplish and feels there are enough worthy contenders in the strawweight division that could lead to big-money fights for years. People want to bring it up and talk about it.” “But I don’t care about any of that going into this one. “I think I just realized how much people pay attention to what I’m saying,” she said. The blowback from her comments about Zhang also took a toll. Namajunas, who earned the nickname “Thug” as a kid from one of her neighbors, had used her post-fight interviews to preach kindness. She said she wasn’t even sure she was interested in fighting and wanted to “do something else” before a small break revitalized her interest. Namajunas has been candid about her difficulty adapting to a career in the spotlight and even hinted at retirement after she lost to Andrade. “Obviously, I’m good at rematches,” she said with a laugh. Seven months later, they’ll square off again, though with a bit more respectful tone after Namajunas linked the Chinese Zhang to communism in the hype leading into the first fight. Namajunas won that rematch also, before she won the strawweight championship for a second time with her victory over Zhang in April. She won the second bout, as well, before dropping the title to Jessica Andrade. Namajunas is on a rematch run since she beat Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the championship five years ago in New York. Kamaru Usman defends his welterweight championship against Colby Covington. Namajunas puts her strawweight title up for grabs against Zhang Weili. It’s back at the city so nice, it had to run back fights twice: UFC 268 on Saturday night at MSG is headlined by two championship rematches. For the first time since Donald Trump became the first sitting president to watch cageside and Dwayne Johnson presented one winner a championship belt, the promotion that largely camped out in Nevada, Florida and Abu Dhabi during the pandemic makes a return to the Garden.

Best fighter in ufc 2