Jessica Andrade became the new UFC strawweight champion after knocking out Rose Namajunas on Saturday night at UFC 237, but this wasn’t just any ol’ knockout. This was a slam knockout.
For almost all of 7:58, Namajunas was piecing up Andrade with speed and combos that bloodied up her face. The performance had Daniel Cormier saying Namajunas was “putting on a master class” late in the first round. Then Round 2 began, and Andrade’s power became a factor. It proved to be the difference, too, as she countered a Kimura attempt with a huge slam – essentially a pile driver – that finished the fight. Namajunas was out the moment her head bounced off the canvas.
Afterward, a social media debate ensued as to whether or not Andrade’s slam was legal, and “Big” John McCarthy was one of the first to set the record straight. But what do we make of the way the fight ended? MMA Junkie’s Ben Fowlkes, Fernanda Prates and Steven Marrocco sound off in this edition of “Triple Take.”
Ben Fowlkes: That’s a legit victory, but I’m not sure it was convincing enough.
First of all, let me tell you what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to make the argument that Jessica Andrade didn’t deserve to win that fight, or that the mechanics of her slam were illegal or unfair. I’m not going to claim that she doesn’t deserve to be walking around with the UFC strawweight title right now, because she does.
What I will argue is this: Andrade was losing virtually every second of this fight – right up until she dumped Rose Namajunas on her head. It was an intentional move on her part, and an effectively violent one, but it was also sort of like the grappler’s version of the so-called “lucky” punch.
Which is to say, I’m not sure she could do it again if she had to, and I probably wouldn’t pick her in a rematch.
In fact, if I’m a strawweight contender in the UFC right now, I’m probably encouraged by this title turnover. Because the Namajunas we saw in the first seven minutes was downright scary. Her movement, her timing, the way she mixed up the strikes and landed cleanly both leading and countering, that was impressive stuff.
After getting sliced up and outstruck from the start, Andrade’s only chance was to bull her way in close and muscle her to the mat. And, honestly, that strategy could not have possibly gone any better.
Again, that still counts, and Andrade is still the champ. No one can take that away from her. But until she really puts the stamp on her title reign with a dominant defense, I’m going to have questions. I suspect I’m not the only one.
Next page – Fernanda Prates: An abrupt comeback seems unsatisfying, but it doesn’t take away from the win.
Fernanda Prates: An abrupt comeback seems unsatisfying, but it doesn’t take away from the win.
First off, let’s establish the facts here: Jessica Andrade won. She’s the UFC strawweight champion. The pile-driver finish of Rose Namajunas wasn’t pretty; in fact, it was terrifying to watch, but it was perfectly legal.
Andrade’s win was not what we would ever consider “controversial.” Still, for some people, it seemed almost unsatisfying. Namajunas was, after all, winning the fight until then. She was doing it beautifully, too, showing off her speed and range as she picked apart her physically gifted opponent on the feet.
Then Andrade just … slammed her. And it was all over. Andrade was champion, and Namajunas was not. How fair is that?
It seems absurd to even put the word “fair” on paper – or screen, whatever – in an MMA article, considering what we know about the sport. Despite the efforts to even the playing field with weight divisions and anti-doping rules, there are too many variables to even entertain the notion of fairness.
But even the most rational of humans is still, well, human. We let ourselves believe in these unrealistic ideas and hope for narrative arcs that just make sense. I get why someone would be frustrated with the feeling that the better fighter that night didn’t win.
But isn’t the better fighter, at least that night, the one who wins?
Andrade is a physical specimen, and we all know that. She’s so ridiculously strong that I didn’t doubt it for a second when she said Namajunas felt like “a feather” to pick up. But if winning fights was as simple as being strong, Mariusz Pudzianowski would pretty much be world champion of everything by now.
Yes, Andrade is strong, and she knows it, but does that necessarily mean she’s resting on it?
That’s where I disagree. As she sat there all stitched up backstage, Andrade talked about the events of her massive title win as part of a plan. It involved Namajunas out in the first round and hurt her with low kicks – and Namajunas’ increasingly red legs shows that they were, at the very least, landing. Who knows if it would have worked, but it’s not like Andrade just walked in there and prayed for the best.
Andrade rationally went over the bits in which Namajunas excelled, which she would address in a possible rematch. She explained that she didn’t exactly plan on finishing Namajunas by slamming her, and rather prepared for a ground-and-pound situation, but then Namajunas held on to her arm too long, and it happened.
Sure, Andrade got hit. But she’d been hit in the chin enough times to trust it. She trusted her coach. She trusted their strategy. She stuck to the strengths that had gotten her to that point. And when Namajunas made a mistake, she capitalized on it and won.
Who knows how the fight would have looked like if that pile driver hadn’t been the end of it. Maybe Namajunas would have continued picking her apart and retained her title with a masterful display. Maybe Andrade would have found her stride, like she did with Claudia Gadelha, and dominated Namajunas en route to a more easily digestible decision win.
We don’t know what would have happened, though. We know what did. And, from where I’m standing, it did not look like a fluke.
Next page – Steven Marrocco: Debate is fine, but don’t let it delegitimize Andrade
Steven Marrocco: Debate is fine, but don’t let it delegitimize Andrade
Whether or not it was legit or lucky, I’m not as conflicted as many seem to be about the result of Saturday’s headliner. Maybe it’s the detachment that comes from over a decade of exposure to sanctioned violence, or the fact that I didn’t see the fight live, but Jessica Andrade pulled off the win in pretty emphatic fashion.
Plenty of fighters get their butts kicked before pulling off the move that turns everything around. That’s why we love this thing of ours.
To me, the big slam is the reason you get behind Andrade as a champ. I can’t think of anyone else in her division that is as dangerous on a second-by-second basis. One second, you’re tooling her on the feet, and the next, you’re a puddle on the floor.
Being the rightful winner of the fight, she gets to set her narrative however she pleases. Everything that was a success, was planned. Everything that wasn’t, that’s a bookmark for the next fight. Rose Namajunas has her own, which may or may not change with time and healing.
The debate over the finish speaks to the difficulty of processing MMA in real time, the need for continuing education among fans and media types, and in large part, a way to work through conflicted feelings about an outcome that seemed so certain. It’s fine to have that debate, but if you want to get all worked up about fairness, have you been paying attention at all to this quote-unquote sport?
A lot of the drama feels like wasted energy. The reporter in me sees the angles that extend the shelf life of UFC 237. The other part is exhausted by the whole act.
After I just finished saying there’s nothing fair about the fight game, I still worry that all this debate will steer Andrade toward a career path that doesn’t fully honor her win. One that’s not necessarily as “fair,” be it an immediate rematch, a fight under less than ideal circumstances, or one of the many ways the promotion can put its finger on the scale for fighters it deems more or less “promotable.” Perhaps that’s why Andrade’s countrymen are so fired up by the debate in the first place. They know in the popularity business, any whiff of controversy delegitimizes what she’s accomplished.
It can also lead to the kind of logjams that favor a few fighters while leaving the rest in limbo. And in this case, I’m all about forward motion.
For complete coverage of UFC 237, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
