UFC 251: Rose Namajunas beats Jessica Andrade via split decision

In a thrilling contest, Rose Namajunas beat Jessica Andrade via split decision in the women’s strawweight division fight at UFC 251 at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi on Saturday (July 11).  

Two judges gave 29-29 score in favor of Namajunas and the other judge scored the fight 29-28 in favor of Andrade.

Namajunas looked menacing in the first two rounds, landing some jabs on Andrade’s face. Namajunas ended the bout with 63 head strikes, 12 body strikes and seven leg strikes. She also tried to land a flying knee on Andrade but failed to make a big connection.

Andrade, however, put up a strong fight and though he made Namajunas bleed from the nose she still lost the fight. Andrade connected with 31 head strikes, 25 body strikes and 15 leg strikes.

With the win, Namajunas succeeded in extracting revenge from a 2019 UFC 237 loss to Andrade which was won by Andrade via a knockout slam. It may be recalled that Andrade won that fight with a few punches to Namajunas' head.

With this win, Namajunas has given her an opportunity to set up a championship fight against Zhang Weili. Zhang defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 185 and is currently the champion for 315 days.

“The first part is just getting right with God; the rest is just technically, physically having fun again. I was hoping to get back in there by the end of the year, but we’ll see how my nose is doing,” she said when asked about challenging Zhang. Namajunas’s right eye was blackened and badly swollen, but her nose was also busted up after the fight with Andrade. So it remains to be seen how quickly she can heal up and be back in the Octagon," Namajunas said after the fight.