THUG ROSE PREDICTS MORE TEARS OF UFC JOY

SO, ahead of her rematch with Chinese monster Zhang Weili at UFC 268 on Sunday, you ask UFC champ Rose Namajunas how it feels to make Joe Rogan cry?

After all, this is no small thing. Especially given Rogan, that famed fight commentator and podcaster to some 11 million people, has spent almost 20 years inside steel cages across the planet interviewing who knows how many warriors, winners, champions, even the beaten, bloodied and vanquished – yet only once shed tears.

Specifically, when holding a microphone up to Namajunas in April. Back when the diminutive Denver slugger, a fighter who had already won, then lost the women’s strawweight crown, went and earned it back once more in the most spectacular of ways – by head kicking Weili right out of her consciousness.

Which is how it goes with the Ballad of Thug Rose. This 52kg question mark who plays piano, attends church, journals and just happens to be among the baddest women to ever enter cages for cash.

“An artist,” is how Namajunas describes herself, right before predicting a finish for her rematch with Weili.

“Punch her in the face,” Namajunas says. “Then take her back and choke her out.”

Quizzed on what it is about her fighting style, and fight full stop, that brings a guy like Rogan to tears, she says: “I guess, I don’t approach fighting the same way most people do. “I take an artistic approach.

“So maybe that’s why?

“Because the definition of art, it’s a skill or craft you really hone to emotionally move people. And that’s exactly what I’m doing fighting.”

Speaking about his interviewing of Namajunas after the Weili win, Rogan said on his podcast recently: “It was this amazing thing.

“They give her the title and … when I’m talking to her, she’s emotional, she’s crying – I’m crying. I cried. I totally cried. This is the first time I ever cried during an interview.” And why?

“It’s someone trying to overcome all the obstacles that are in play when you’re trying to be great,” he said.

Then soon after: “There’s nothing about her that’s aggressive, nothing brutish.”

Which is why this Sunday inside Madison Square Garden, on a blockbuster card boasting headliner’s Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, plus the lightweight banger that is Justin Gaethje versus Michael Chandler, Thug Rose could conceivably steal the show.

That, and make people feel.

“And it’s weird, man,” Namajunas concedes. “Really cool, but weird.”

Still, what was it like to see Rogan so visibly moved by a moment that was effectively you kicking another woman’s lights out?

“That’s insane,” the champ agrees. “I mean, he’s seen a lot of crazy stuff.”