Yesterday Rose Namajunas spoke to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani about her forthcoming fight versus UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili. In that interview she was asked about her comments to Lithuanian press that included the statement ‘better dead than red’ and that Zhang ‘is red’. Red in this instance referred to being a communist.
Namajunas’ objection to what she said Zhang represents comes from a family history that includes her great-grandfather being killed in battle against the Soviets (who were not Chinese) and a documentary she watched about the 1992 Lithuanian men’s basketball team.
Namajunas stood by her comments and continued to encourage people to check out the documentary.