ONE Championship: Xiong Jingnan says UFC’s Rose Namajunas is a ‘good friend’, excited for Zhang Weili rematch
- ONE strawweight champion reveals she messages her UFC counterpart on Instagram
- ‘I like her, she’s very kind,’ says China’s Xiong, who would love a ‘dream match-up’ with the American
Zhang Weili and Rose Namajunas may have their differences, but ONE Championship strawweight champ Xiong Jingnan has insisted she is “good friends” with her UFC counterpart.
Namajunas took the UFC strawweight belt from China’s Zhang via first-round TKO in April, after a fractured build-up to their fight in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Lithuanian-American invoking the Cold War mantra “better dead than red”.
But Xiong, now China’s sole MMA champion, recently claimed she has a good relationship with Namajunas, when asked if she would like to fight her in a cross-promotional bout.
“Sure, of course I can battle Rose, because me and Rose we are actually friends,” Xiong told reporters after defending her title with a unanimous decision win against Michelle Nicolini at ONE: Empower. “We added each other on Instagram, and sometimes we chat on there too.