{"id":426341,"date":"2021-04-15T09:50:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T13:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=426341"},"modified":"2021-04-15T09:51:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T13:51:00","slug":"better-dead-than-red-ufc-fighter-doubles-down-on-anti-communism-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/better-dead-than-red-ufc-fighter-doubles-down-on-anti-communism-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Better Dead Than Red\u2019: UFC Fighter Doubles Down On Anti-Communism Remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbetter-dead-than-red-ufc-fighter-doubles-down-on-anti-communism-remarks%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=426341&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-2000.jpeg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>UFC strawweight contender Rose Namajunas isn\u2019t backing down from her criticisms of communism, reiterating her family\u2019s struggles against communist oppression.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of her April 24 fight against Chinese champion Zhang Weili, Namajunas, who is Lithuanian-American, said her motivation for winning the fight is partly fueled by her opposition to communism.&nbsp;ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mma\/story\/_\/id\/31254452\/rose-namajunas-stands-communism-comments-ufc-261-opponent-zhang-weili\">reported<\/a> Tuesday:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"16\">\n<p><em>Namajunas\u2019 family is from Lithuania, and she said she has drawn inspiration from the documentary, \u201cThe Other Dream Team.\u201d The film focuses on the 1992 Lithuanian men\u2019s national basketball team, which entered the Barcelona Olympics as an independent country after the fall of the Soviet Union.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Namajunas recently told a Lithuanian outlet that the movie is a reminder that \u201cit\u2019s better dead than red,\u201d an anti-communist expression coined during the Cold War. She also said Zhang is \u201cred\u201d and that freedom is a \u201chuge motivating factor\u201d for why she fights.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI have a lot to fight for in this fight,\u201d Namajunas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodyelbow.com\/2021\/4\/11\/22378255\/rose-namajunas-zhang-weili-better-dead-than-red-ufc-261-lithuania-ussr-china-represents-mma-news\">explained<\/a>. \u201cAnd what she (Weili) represents, you know, I was just, I was just trying to remind myself of all the \u2014 my background and everywhere that I come from and my family and everything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I kind of wanted to educate my training partner Chico Camus on the Lithuanian struggle and just the history of it all,\u201d the fighter continued. \u201cSo we watched \u2018The Other Dream Team\u2019 just to get like an overall sentiment of what we fight for. And so, just after watching that it\u2019s just a huge reminder of yeah: better dead than red, you know.&nbsp;And I think, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any coincidence that Weili is red, you know \u2026 that\u2019s what she represents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s nothing personal against her,\u201d&nbsp;Namajunas against emphasized, \u201cbut that\u2019s a huge motivating factor of why I fight. And I fight for freedom, and I\u2019ve got the Christ consciousness, I\u2019ve got Lithuanian blood, and I\u2019ve got the American dream \u2014 and all of those things, I\u2019m taking with me into this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Namajunas backed her statements during a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani\u2019s MMA Show.&nbsp;\u201cIf you\u2019re confused about any of my opinions,\u201d she said, \u201cyou can watch the documentary and you could get a good idea as to what my family had to go through, the reason I\u2019m in the United States today, the reason that I do mixed martial arts, all of that stuff. I\u2019d probably have a really different life if it wasn\u2019t for everything in that documentary, how Lithuanians had to struggle with communism oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reason that I brought it up and that I referenced it is because the reporter suggested I had animosity toward past opponents, and that\u2019s what maybe caused some motivation in those fights, and in this one there\u2019s no animosity so maybe there\u2019s a lack of motivation,\u201d she continued. \u201cBut that couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Namajunas has repeatedly stressed that she doesn\u2019t have personal animosity toward Zhang; the two women even share the same manager. But all of her opponents, to her, are \u201cred.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re just the person standing in the way of my dream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>WATCH:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"5.0625\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rose\u2019s \u201cbetter dead than red\u201d comments <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC261?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC261<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1deEaDYGci\">https:\/\/t.co\/1deEaDYGci<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eKWzv9UUIE\">pic.twitter.com\/eKWzv9UUIE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Borrachinha Depot (@FullContactMTWF) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FullContactMTWF\/status\/1381080611520086016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 11, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/the-most-conservative-sport-5-ufc-stars-who-dont-hide-their-right-wing-opinions\">\u2018The Most Conservative Sport\u2019: 5 UFC Stars Who Don\u2019t Hide Their Right-Wing&nbsp;Opinions<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UFC strawweight contender Rose Namajunas isn\u2019t backing down from her criticisms of communism, reiterating her family\u2019s struggles against communist oppression.Ahead of her April 24 fight against Chinese champion Zhang Weili, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2312216,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-2000.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Better Dead Than Red\u2019: UFC Fighter Doubles Down On Anti-Communism Remarks","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-2000.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Better Dead Than Red\u2019: UFC Fighter Doubles Down On Anti-Communism Remarks","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2312216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}