“Thug” Rose is close to the title.
Former two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Strawweight champion Rose Namajunas returns to action against No. 2-ranked Flyweight contender Natalia Silva on the main card of UFC 324 this weekend (Sat., Jan. 24, 2026), which goes down inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
And suddenly, this Flyweight bout carries massive implications.
According to Namajunas, the winner of Saturday’s fight will earn the next shot at reigning Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko. The scenario makes perfect sense for Silva, who is riding a 13-fight win streak, stands a perfect 7–0 inside the Octagon, and has rapidly established herself as one of the division’s most dangerous contenders.
For Namajunas, however, the stakes are even higher.
The former Strawweight queen has already suffered losses to two top Flyweight contenders — Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot — and currently rides just a one-fight winning streak. Still, “Thug” Rose revealed on The Ariel Helwani Show that the UFC has told her a victory over Silva would punch her ticket to a Flyweight title fight. In her own words, that promise is the driving force behind her continued pursuit of greatness — she wants to become a two-division champion.
But achieving that goal would come with an emotional wrinkle.
Namajunas would potentially have to fight one of her idols — and someone she considers a friend — in Shevchenko.
“It’ll be weird, but I mean, we’re martial artists,” Namajunas said. “At the end of the day, I would love to have a conversation about it and talk with her first and everything like that, because she’s somebody who inspired me and I’ve looked up to.”
“It would definitely be conflicting emotions, but at the same time, I’m down to do it,” Namajunas added. “I would understand if there were conflicting thoughts because it’d be weird, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it. She’s literally my favorite female fighter, so it’d be so weird because, obviously, I would never want to see her lose. But then I would have to go into a fight and try to beat her… It would be a dream come true, but also feel like, ‘awe.’”
Safe to say, the stakes for UFC 324 just skyrocketed.
