Professional MMA fighter & trainer Hollywood Joe Tussing brings you the Fight Review/Recap for the co main event on the UFC 223 fight card on April 7, 2018, the rematch between Thug Rose Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Thug Rose Namajunas vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk, in UFC 223 was probably the best women’s fight I have ever seen. It was an amazing fight from both women in which Rose Namajunas maintained her straw weight belt. It was a beautiful performance from Thug Rose. In the first two rounds she really used her movement and her left hand with her spacing and distance to stifle the jab of Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Jedrzejczyk really gets started with her pumping jabs as she likes to overwhelm fighters but Thug Rose really used her distance to keep Joanna from being able to land that initial jab. Thug Rose used her left hand just masterfully as she landed 10 or 15 powerful left hands to Joanna’s right eye. Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s right eye was basicallly closed by the end of the fight.
In the third round, Joanna started to pick things up and really started to attack with the leg kicks and it looked like it was slowing Thug Rose down, but maybe Rose was slowing her own pace down so she would have a lot for the fifth round. Rose Namajunas came out in the fifth round, really putting her stamp on this fight. Rose probably broke Joanna’s nose in the fifth round and finished closing her eye up, as she was landing beautiful shots when they came together in their exchanges. Rose had great head movement and I was surprised at how few leg kicks Joanna used in the fifth round. In the third and fourth round the leg kicks were super effective and I thought she would have gone back to them and try to overwhelm Rose in the fifth round, and try to get that decision, but Rose used her distance and was just super powerful with her
left hand. Her one-twos were right on point.
The copy box numbers show Joanna landing more but it didn’t look like it and the punches she was landing just didn’t seem to have much effect on Rose. Right at the end of the fifth round , Rose went for a body lock, outside trip take down. It was a beautiful take down, and Joanna was able to get back to the fence, with Rose not doing to much with the take down in the last 25 seconds or so, but it really stamped the win for Thug Rose.
This was an amazing fight by both ladies, but Joanna is really going to have to go and change the way she approaches MMA, because if she can’t get started with her jabs it really stifles her game. Joanna will have to start working on some other opening attacks and different ways to get started with her combos. Thug Rose looked amazing and I thought she would go for more take downs but her striking was so crisp. Her head movement, her in and out, her counter punching, everything was perfect and that is why she is the straw weight champion, the best 115 pound woman on the planet and I’m excited to see who she fights next.
I really do think Joanna is going to have to change up her game now that she has lost twice in a row and the first loss was not a fluke.
Maybe we’ll see Karolina Kowalkiewicz come up and challenge Thug Rose, and that would be a great fight.
Other UFC 223 Fight Reviews/Recaps:
UFC 223- Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Al Iaquinta
UFC 223 Zabit Magomedsharipov vs Kyle Bochniak Fight Recap
UFC 223 Joe Lauzon vs Chris Gruetzemacher – Fight Recap
