Mike Bohn: Fight for the title
There’s been more than a dozen title fights in UFC history where the challenger has entered off a loss. If Namajunas were to join the list, she would be far from the least deserving person on there.
That doesn’t make booking Namajunas against 115-pound champ [autotag]Zhang Weili[/autotag] completely excusable, but having her fight for the belt despite being knocked out by Jessica Andrade at UFC 237 wouldn’t be an unprecedented action.
Andrade deserves all credit for that brutal slam that ended Namajunas’ reign, but the Brazilian was largely dominated before the rare finishing sequence. There’s an argument to be made Namajunas still has the best skillset in the division, especially with how quickly Andrade’s reign came to an end. That makes a matchup with Weili very compelling.
At this point it appears to be a two-horse race. With Suarez injured, Jedrzejczyk seems like the front runner to get a crack at the title, and she deserves it. Jedrzejczyk would be rightfully upset if it went to someone else, but lest we forget who is the only person to beat her at strawweight: Namajunas. Not once, but twice.
All signs point to Jedrzejczyk getting that shot, but if for any reason negotiations fall through with the UFC (which is hardly unprecedented), Namajunas should expect the call.
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