6. Rose Namajunas
Despite possessing a record of just 11-5 at only 30 years old, her prime, Rose comes in at an impressive sixth, and certainly has an opportunity to climb higher. Why is that? “Thug Rose” consistently fights the very best, and is 2-0 against two different women on this list including one of the top five: a hell of an achievement. Starting out as a karate-based striker with some outstanding submission skills, but lacking a degree of wrestling and boxing, Rose went 2-1 in Invicta FC, losing a decision to Tecia Torres, before joining the cast of “The Ultimate Fighter Season 20,” which would crown the inaugural women's strawweight champion. While not expected to do so well, the 22 year-old scored submissions of Alex Chambers, Joanne Wood and Randa Markos to make the finals. There, against Carla Esparza, she showed a certain lack of takedown defense and vulnerability off her back, being stopped in the third round. Rose came back with dominant submissions of Angela Hill and Paige van Zant, before gaining revenge against Torres in their rematch, though it was an incredibly close fight. Namajunas was developing much better striking at this point and also shoring up her wrestling, but she stumbled again against Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who defeated her by split decision. After Namajunas easily won the first round, the Polish fighter wisely began to clinch, which Namajunas struggled to deal with. Undeterred, Namajunas scored a sensational Round 2 finish against Michelle Waterson, nailing her with a head kick and finishing with a rear-naked choke.
Still, she was given little chance against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, whom the UFC was already proclaiming “greatest women's fighter of all time” and was proclaiming herself the “bogeywoman.” Both felt a little embarrassing when Rose clobbered her with strikes in the first round. She then proved it was no fluke, winning a five-round decision in the rematch, showing an improvement in her wrestling. Namajunas then faced highly dangerous and skilled challenger Jessica Andrade and despite utterly dominating and hurting her throughout the first round, Andrade picked Namajunas up and knocked her unconscious with a slam in the second stanza. Namajunas talked about retirement, but luckily for us, she continued to fight, defeating Andrade by decision in a highly exciting rematch where both fighters showed considerable improvement. This earned her a title challenge against Weili Zhang where, once again, she was the underdog, and yet again, she came crashing through with a beautiful head kick knockout a little over a minute into the first round to became champion for a second time. The two rematched immediately, and Namajunas used her much improved wrestling to take a close five-round split decision. Namajunas was a considerable favorite to defend against Carla Esparza, who had finished her for the first strawweight crown in 2014. Sadly, fans witnessed one of the most boring title fights ever, as Namajunas didn't engage for fear of being taken down, and Esparza didn't engage for fear of being punched and kicked. Esparza won the split decision, but there were no true victors that night. At 30 years old, however, and constantly showing new wrinkles to her game, “Thug Rose” could well rise in this list in the coming years.
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