Namajunas still traumatized by McGregor attack

UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas is traumatized by April’s bus attack in Brooklyn by Conor McGregor, according to her coach, and “still doesn’t leave her house.”

Trevor Wittman, head trainer at Grudge Training Center in Colorado, said during an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Tuesday that Namajunas — whom Wittman said grew up in an abusive household — has been coming to the gym and going on nature walks but “staying away from places where there are lots of people.”

Namajunas, 26, was on the bus that McGregor attacked at Barclays Center following a media day with UFC 223 fighters, and although she was not one of the two fighters injured by broken glass when a steel dolly was thrown through a window, she was visibly shaken.

“She’s super-upset right now,” UFC president Dana White said at the time, “and basically left and walked back to the hotel.”

There was doubt over whether Namajunas would go through with her fight two nights later, but she did so and successfully defended her belt against ex-champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Five months later, according to Wittman, there is no word on a next title defense for Namajunas, who is healing from an unrelated neck injury.

Next month’s fight between McGregor and bus attack target Khabib Nurmagomedov makes liberal use of footage from the Brooklyn incident. Wittman doesn’t think that’s right, saying it’s “in bad taste” for the UFC to hype up an incident that physically injured two fighters, Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg, forcing both out of fights that weekend, and was emotionally traumatic for one of the fight promotion’s champions.