Sorry, Tampa! UFC reverses course, heads to Denver with ‘Namajunas vs. Barber’ summer sizzler

‘Thug Rose’ is back and ready for another tough fight at 125 pounds as she continues to chase a second women’s division title.

Already making progress?

After hitting St. Louis, Mo., this past weekend with a fun show, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will continue to venture outside the cozy (and lazy) confines of its APEX venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a return to “Mile High City.”

Rose Namajunas is picking up momentum in her quest for women’s Flyweight gold. Indeed, the former two-time women’s Strawweight champ defeated Amanda Ribas at 125 pounds back in March, and now she’s expected to return in July to face No. 3-ranked Maycee Barber.

That news comes via Ariel Helwani, who reports that the fight, “will be the main event of the UFC Fight Night event on July 13” in Denver, Colorado. That’s going to be disappointing news to Florida fans, who had been teased for weeks that Tampa was going to host that weekend’s “Fight Night”-themed show.

Perhaps the site fee payment from the city’s tourism board bounced?

Kidding aside, “Thug Rose” hasn’t competed more than once per year since earning back-to-back wins over Weili Zhang in 2021. After losing an absolutely dreadful fight to Carla Esparza where nothing happened across five rounds, there were big questions as to whether Namajunas was really committed to fighting. A finger injury suffered in a loss to Manon Fiorot kept her out of action for six months, but now that she’s healthy she is turning around in four for Barber.

It might help that UFC is giving her the opponent she wanted — Namajunas called out Barber following her last win.

“I think she’s a savage,” Namajunas said. “She’s a big girl, she’s strong. She’s just like a bully in there. I knew her when she was really young, and she’s a lot different now. And she called me out back when she was younger and things like that. So, I think that’s kind of funny.

“But, she’s really tough,” Namajunas concluded. “That would definitely motivate me and get me going every day because I know she throws with really bad intentions.”

As for Barber, she’s currently on a six-fight win streak and is 9-2 in her UFC career. She also just went viral on the internet recently after getting into an altercation with a possibly-intoxicated “Karen” at 2 a.m. in a parking lot.

Onward and upward.

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