Zhang Weili is scheduled to defend her UFC strawweight title versus former champion Rose Namajunas this month in the sold out Jacksonville Arena in Florida for UFC 261. Ahead of the fight Namajunas spoke to Lithuanian outlet LRT.
With that outlet Namajunas expressed that she is motivated to fight Zhang, who is Chinese, because of Lithuania’s history of oppression under the Soviet Union. In her interview Namajunas used the slogan “better dead than red” when describing her mindset heading into the fight with Zhang, who she also called “red”.
You can see video of Namajunas’ interview below, via @FullContactMTWF:
Below is a transcript of what Namajunas said during that exchange:
“The animosity and things like that, those can be very motivating factors in short moments, but in all actuality going into the fight there was, I was, maybe there was certain, um rivalries and things like that, but I always kept myself in control.