Rose Namajunas fell out of the public favor a few fights ago when she delivered what was considered by many people, including Joe Rogan, to be the most "boring fight in the history or modern-day MMA." This was made worse when she and her trainer did a bunch of PR claiming that the public don't understand the sport and that this was their plan all along. I think that most people can agree that when you are facing criticism for underperforming in any sport or any anything really, one of the worst things you can do is to call the customers idiots yet that is exactly what they did.
Rose went from being one of the most-liked fighters in UFC to being ignored or worse, hated, by many fans. Once this started to happen she and her team did the wise thing and shut up about it and just focused on getting Rose back on track to the big time but this time in a different weight category.
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Rose was headlining a Fight Night on ESPN and anyone that watches this sport knows that once you make it to that point, you better perform because if you do not, the next logical step is to make you an undercard at those events and once that happens there is a very good chance that the UFC is phasing you out as a performer. Pay Per View events is where the real money and publicity is and Rose desperately needed a win in order to even be considered for future events.
She did win, but the 5 rounds leading up to the unanimous decision victory were less than super exciting and once again I found myself saying "get on with it already!" in my mind while it was taking place.
The highlights start about 40 seconds into that video if you want to see what I am talking about. The problem with this performance is that even creating a highlight reel of it must have been very difficult to do because once again, not a great deal happened in this fight. Both fighters took some damage but for the most part it was a bit of a "dancing contest" yet again and this is what turned the fans away from liking Rose in the first place. She wasn't running away as much as she did in that ill-fated matchup versus Carla Esparza, but then again, nothing else is either.
There were 0 submission attempts and only 5 takedowns during the entire fight. Normally this lack of lying around on the ground would make me happy but when you have two fighters that are basically looking for the counter-attack rather than being the one that is getting in there and going for it, things are going to be boring.
I congratulate Rose on not losing but this sport is about so much more than just getting a victory. The fans have to be excited when they see your name on a fight card and I really believe that Rose failed to make an impression on most people.
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The above image is a good overall explanation for what most of the fight was like: Both fighters were standing at distance, appearing afraid to engage while throwing long-distance jabs and kicks that even if they do connect, are very unlikely to do any damage.
If this was Rose's strategy I suppose we can perhaps deduce that she was desperately trying to avoid another loss because had that happened, she likely would have been completely tossed aside and forgotten about. The problem here is that this victory, while still valid, is very unlikely to propel Rose to the limelight that she was in when she shocked the world and scored a first-round KO of then Champion, Zhang Weili and then went on to win a decision victory at the rematch.
I think that was the last time that the Rose that we all fell in love with set food into the octagon. She has been very boring ever since that day and if this victory is any sign of what is to come, it isn't going to be enough. The fans want more than a lame ass decision after 5 rounds of walking around in circles, they want to see two people out there swinging for the fences and trying to punish their opponent. There has never been a popular fighter in the men or women's division that consistently won by decision and if Rose can't turn this around I think that the sport will soon walk away from her.
Rose is currently ranked 7th in the flyweight division and despite getting a victory, she did not move up in the rankings. I don't recall this ever happening in the past. This says to me that the people who are in charge of rankings were also unimpressed with her "victory" and the people are going to require more in order to get back on the "Thug train."