Rose Namajunas has chosen to address the statements Sean Strickland had made about her indirectly.
Recently, in one of his his traditional social media rants Sean Strickland commented on the MMA culture where a number of prominent female athletes is dating their coaches – most notable of them being Rose Namajunas.
Initially, Strickland went on Twitter to criticize UFC athlete Aspen Ladd, due to her “unusual” relationship with her coach Jim West. According to Sean, Jim West is an alleged abuser.
“The fact you started to train with him at what 12? 100 percent grooming.” Strickland wrote on his Twitter. “Tell me my facts are wrong and I’ll apologize now. @TheAspenLadd.”
Later during the same rant, the UFC middleweight contender moved his target to UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas. Strickland commented on Rose’s relationship with Pat Barry, a former UFC heavyweight that now works as her coach.
According to Pat Barry himself, he met Rose Namajunas when he was 28 years old. Meanwhile, she was only 14 which means Pat Barry is 13 years older than Namajunas.
In a 2012 interview, Barry claimed he had been dating Rose for five years. Meaning that the couple started dating when Rose was around 15 years old.
“I say we’ve been dating for more than five years, but she says two or three years,” Barry told Bleacher Report.
“We were apparently together a lot longer than I was aware of,” Namajunas said in return “It took him a while to chip away at my cold heart, but he did.”
Despite not mentioning the drama directly, Namajunas has apparently addressed Strickland’s comments on a prayer she posted on her social media.
“I ask for wisdom also for you know, certain distractions and people that like to say certain things,” Rose said during her prayer. “I pray that you give us all wisdom in response to dumb people, people that just say stupid things.”
Rose Namajunas’ questionable relationship has been a target of criticism by fans in the past. However, Namajunas and her husband have never directly addressed such criticism.