Rose Namajunas will carry a bucket load of confidence - and American flags - into the cage with her when she faces off against UFC strawweight champion Weili Zhang at UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Namajunas (9-4) returns to the Octagon on Saturday night when she takes on Zhang (21-1) for her old 115-pound belt in the co-main event of UFC 261.
The women's strawweight division is one of the most stacked weight classes in the UFC. It counts the likes of Mackenzie Dern, Marina Rodriguez, Tatiana Suarez, and Yan Xiaonan among its ranks but Namajunas is adamant that she is the best 115lber on the planet.
The 28-year-old is the former UFC strawweight champion and believes she is better than any of the other strawweights on the roster.
Fighting out of Beijing, China, Zhang suffered her one and only MMA defeat in her first fight of her professional career.
She improved her record to 21-1 following her UFC 248 victory over Joanna Jedrzejczyk with the sole loss of her career coming seven years ago.
Speaking to the media at the UFC 261 pre-fight press conference, Namajunas is feeling confident in her abilities to beat the 31-year-old.
"It would mean that I’m right in what I believe, and that when I do my best, I am the best," Namajunas said. "It means if God wants me to be the champion, I’ll be the champion.”
Many feel the defending champion will cause a few problems of her own for Namajunas but she believes she will be able to reclaim what she feels is rightfully hers.
"I think she has a lot of submission finishes in her early fights, so yes, she’s very well-rounded,” she added. “All it matters is that how it’s [Zhang’s punching power] going to be compared to me and I hit really hard."
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