Rose Namajunas

“I respect my competition.”

“I think that's what makes me so great of a fighter. I'm crazy as hell. And fighting helps me with that.”

“That Dutch style of kickboxing, that's great. That's hard. It's very intimidating to stand across from, but you know it's very rhythmic on the beat. It's just something: It looks scary, but it's nothing to be scared of.”

“All the scars on my body, all the bumps and bruises, all the muscles - that is a story of everything I have done. And it's not just my story. My ancestors who came before me gave me this vessel to sculpt and mold.”

“I think that I can speak in front of the camera. I think my fighting ability can speak for itself as well.”

“I used to fight with hate. There's been a lot of aggression in my past growing up and stuff. That's because I was hurt myself.”

“I learned that love is a much more sustainable energy to draw on than hate.”

“I'm just a very impatient person. It's always something that I'm working on, and just staying interested in the fight game is the biggest challenge for me. As long as I'm interested and I have an incentive to stay interested, then I'm unbeatable.”

“I'm like a tree. My leaves might change color, but my roots are the same.”

“I'm just here to show up and fight and then get my money and go home.”

“That's what I want to do when I finish fighting - build urban farms and learn how to become a farmer, because that's what I wanted to be when I was a little girl.”

“All I can do is make sure I show up to fight, and then they have no choice but to pay me.”

“I had to really create a positive atmosphere for myself, and that has to come from within.”

“There's pros and cons to everything, and I choose to look at the positives.”

“I've done taekwondo striking my entire life.”

“I didn't need the belt to validate me.”

“Being resourceful and creating is a big part of my Lithuanian culture. My grandfather is part of who I am, too. He was a professional wrestler. He had a very functional, very slick, long frame.”

“My dad died, and he wasn't in my life because he had schizophrenia, so it's been something that my entire family has been fighting against since I can remember.”

“If I'm not fighting for a good reason, then your personal life starts to get messy, and it's like, 'What am I doing this for?'”

“My dream is to be a farmer myself, but also to provide opportunities to others who don't have the land or the resources, in order to grow food themselves and teach them how to do it.”