Former two-time UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas suffered an eye injury that required surgery following her last fight. The injury was a result of eye pokes during her UFC 324 loss to Natalia Silva in January.
“It was like a three-month process. Right after the fight I had to get this surgery (canalicular tube surgery) right away. They put this weird silicone tube in my eye,” Namajunas said during an appearance on Weighing In.
“So, they did that. It was a really easy surgery, though. It was just kind of uncomfortable. I couldn’t blow my nose. I couldn’t like, you now, rub my eye or something because it (the tube) could pop out. So, I had to be like off, you know, just like no contact training for three months.”
Namajunas doesn’t have a fight booked but plans to fight again. She’s on a bit of a hiatus from the sport and traveling. She’s also been reflecting on why she fights anymore considering her accomplishments inside the octagon.
“That’s kind of why I’ve been sitting out for a while because I’m trying to like rediscover, okay, what am I doing now? Because, the last, like, to just be fairly transparent, like, the last three opportunities that I had, or the last three losses that I had, right? The Natalia fight, the Erin Blanchfield fight, and the Manon [Fiorot] fight. Those were, and I don’t know about the Erin Blanchfield fight. I just kind off assuming, but those three fights, like the last one, I was told that I would get a title shot with a win with that fight. And same thing with the Manon fight, I needed to win that fight in order to get the title shot. Erin Blachfield, I’m pretty sure it was the same thing,” she said.
“So, it’s like I came up short in all three of those. And it’s like, okay, well, you know, I’m at a point in my life where, you know, I’m thinking about like family stuff and all these things and like next steps, future things. I do want to compete and I still want to fight again, but I want to make sure that like when I’m going in there I’m like going for a purpose and a reason.”