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Dana White claims Rose Namajunas ‘doesn’t want a title shot,’ Namajunas’ camp disagrees

It seems Dana White and Rose Namajunas are not on the same page.

The UFC president claims the former strawweight champion doesn’t want a shot at reclaiming the belt from current titleholder Zhang Weili. White said the promotion is looking at other options, likely former champion Carla Esparza, due to what he termed as Namajunas’  lack of desire.

“What I’m hearing is that Rose doesn’t want a title shot,” White told BT Sport on Wednesday. “Rose doesn’t want to fight for a title. I don’t think she did. She doesn’t want to fight for the title, so we’ll see how it all plays out.

“If we’re looking at rankings and how it plays out, it would play out Weili vs. Carla Esparza.”

Soon after hearing White’s comments, Namajunas’ team issued a response not only denying them, but in fact stating the opposite: A title shot is high on their list of interests.

“That is absolutely not true,” said Namajunas’ coach and fiance, Pat Barry, in a statement to ESPN. “We absolutely want the title fight. Who would turn down a title fight? We just don’t want to air this out publicly. If there was some confusion, they can call us to clear it up.”

Namajunas (9-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) last fought at UFC 251 in July where she avenged her defeat to Jessica Andrade and earned “Fight of the Night” honors. It was her comeback fight after stepping away for a year.

Prior to that, she had lost her first bout with Andrade, putting an end to her title reign. Namajunas won the belt in 2017, stopping then-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217. She went on to defend the belt once in a rematch against Jedrzejczyk prior to losing to Andrade.

Meanwhile, Zhang hasn’t competed since March, when she successfully defended her title for the first time at UFC 248 against Jedrzejczyk in a bout many consider the 2020 “Fight of the Year.”

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