In a surprising turn of events, Rose Namajunas has injected politics into her upcoming clash with Zhang Weili at UFC 261, stating “better dead than red.”
Namajunas referred to a popular Cold War slogan in the US that was historically used to express anti-communism sentiment.
With the comments, Namajunas has declared that she feels added motivation to defeat Zhang Weili because of ‘what she represents.’
Transcript of Namajunas’ comments when speaking to Lithuanian outlet LRT (via Bloody Elbow):
“I don’t hate Weili or anything like that, there’s nothing… um, you know, but I do feel as though… I have… I have a lot to fight for in this fight. And what she represents and um, you know, I was just, I was just trying to remind myself of, you know, all the—my background and everywhere that I come from and my family and everything like that.
“And I kind of wanted to educate my training partner Chico Camus on the Lithuanian struggle and just the history of it all. So we watched The Other Dream Team just to get like an overall sentiment of what we fight for. And so, just after watching that it’s just a huge reminder of yeah: better dead than red, you know. And I think, um, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Weili is red, you know, she’s a, that’s what she represents.”
In this video, Patrick Auger, Matthew Wells, Drake Riggs, and Ant Walker discuss Rose Namajunas’ comments in great detail.
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