Rose Namajunas is undergoing surgery on Tuesday to repair the damage done from her fight against Natalia Silva this past weekend at UFC 324.
The former strawweight champion revealed that she actually suffered several eye pokes during the fight before losing a razor-close decision that many critics believe she actually won. Unfortunately, Namajunas went home with a loss on her record and now she’s having her eye surgically repaired with approximately three months of recovery time required.
“I’m headed
into surgery,” Namajunas said on Instagram on Tuesday. “Canalicular tube surgery. I got poked in the eye a few times in the fight. But my tube is torn so it’s going to be repaired right now. I’m going to have a silicone tube in my eye. Three months, so pray for me guys. Just glad we can get it fixed.”
Canalicular trauma is an injury that occurs when there is a tear to the drainage system in the eye. The silicone tubes are placed in the eye to restore tear drainage and also acting as a spacer to allow the damage to heal properly.
The stents are put in place and typically there for up to 10 months depending on how much time it takes for healing. Obviously, Namajunas already stated three months so it doesn’t appear she’ll be on the longer end of recovery time from the surgery.
The loss to Silva dropped Namajunas to 3-2 in her past five fights while also taking her out of title contention for the time being. The back-and-forth fight at UFC 324 ended with Namajunas dropping a decision to Silva, who is now expected to move onto face reigning UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko in the near future.
A stalwart at 115 pounds for most of her career, Namajunas decided to move to flyweight in 2023 but she’s found mixed results with wins over fighters such as Tracy Cortez and Miranda Maverick but then falling to higher ranked contenders such as Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot.
Given the three-month timeline that Namajunas set with the surgery, it’s likely she’ll be able to compete again before 2026 is over.
