JRE MMA Show #13 with Rose Namajunas & Pat Barry
Joe Rogan (host), Rose Namajunas (guest), Pat Barry (guest), Pat Barry (guest), Guest (unidentified brief interjection) (guest)
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Rose Namajunas, JRE MMA Show #13 with Rose Namajunas & Pat Barry explores thug Rose: Fighting Fear, Growing Food, And Changing MMA Culture Rose Namajunas and Pat Barry sit down with Joe Rogan to unpack Rose’s mindset before and after dethroning Joanna Jędrzejczyk, emphasizing calm, faith, and emotional control over trash talk and theatrics.
Thug Rose: Fighting Fear, Growing Food, And Changing MMA Culture
Rose Namajunas and Pat Barry sit down with Joe Rogan to unpack Rose’s mindset before and after dethroning Joanna Jędrzejczyk, emphasizing calm, faith, and emotional control over trash talk and theatrics.
They dive into Rose’s unconventional training and lifestyle—ice baths, gardening, piano, shadowboxing, weight vests, and even building off‑grid ‘earthship’ houses—as extensions of her philosophy about nature, balance, and self‑reliance.
The conversation explores psychological warfare in MMA, how Rose and Pat “ghosted” Joanna mentally, and how Rose’s intuition and past struggles shape her approach to fear, safety, and big‑fight anxiety.
They close by discussing coaching relationships, Rose’s desire to fight only a few more years, and her bigger mission: using her platform to promote kindness, sustainable living, and a healthier culture in and beyond MMA.
Key Takeaways
Center your performance on service, not ego.
Rose says she fights better when it’s not just about her but about helping others and ‘filling her spiritual cup,’ which keeps her grounded under pressure and shapes how she speaks after big wins.
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Neutralize mind games by refusing to feed them.
Against Joanna’s intense trash talk and intimidation, Rose stayed eerily calm, recited the Lord’s Prayer, and gave no reactions—even when touched at face‑offs—denying Joanna the emotional fuel she relies on.
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Treat mental training as seriously as physical training.
Their camp for Joanna was “almost all mental”: journaling, visualization, ice baths, creative outlets like piano, and carefully controlling social media to protect focus and confidence.
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Use functional, enjoyable conditioning instead of rigid routines.
Rose prefers shadowboxing with intent, running for fun, manual labor (like building earthships), chasing her dog, and wearing a weight vest over formal strength programs she finds soul‑draining.
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Curate your coaching circle and stay loyal to what works.
Rose emphasizes small, aligned teams and credits coaches like Trevor Wittman, Greg Nelson, Tony Basile, and Pat Barry for tailored, one‑on‑one development rather than generic ‘big room’ practices.
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Protect your mind by limiting chaotic inputs.
For the Joanna fight they deliberately reduced social media, avoided posting training footage, and even ‘ghosted’ Joanna publicly to keep their mental space clean amid political protests, terror scares, and pre‑fight stress.
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Have a purpose beyond the belt or the paycheck.
Rose openly talks about retiring by 30, building urban farms, promoting sustainability and kindness, and using her platform to ‘change the world,’ which gives her career direction and reduces identity pressure around being champion.
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Notable Quotes
“If your hand’s closed to give, you can’t be open to receive.”
— Rose Namajunas
“If you don’t give energy to something negative, you don’t feed the fire.”
— Rose Namajunas
“This was exactly what Rose wanted it to be: the scariest possible situation for her to be in.”
— Pat Barry
“If you can get in a cold ice bath, nobody standing across from you is gonna scare you.”
— Rose Namajunas
“If I can’t do it with these guys, then I don’t wanna do it no more.”
— Rose Namajunas
Questions Answered in This Episode
How much of Rose’s composure against Joanna was faith-based versus purely psychological strategy, and could that approach work for most fighters or is it unique to her personality?
Rose Namajunas and Pat Barry sit down with Joe Rogan to unpack Rose’s mindset before and after dethroning Joanna Jędrzejczyk, emphasizing calm, faith, and emotional control over trash talk and theatrics.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What are the tradeoffs between Rose’s free‑form, enjoyment‑driven conditioning and more traditional data‑driven strength and conditioning programs in terms of longevity and peak performance?
They dive into Rose’s unconventional training and lifestyle—ice baths, gardening, piano, shadowboxing, weight vests, and even building off‑grid ‘earthship’ houses—as extensions of her philosophy about nature, balance, and self‑reliance.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How might Rose’s plan to retire early and focus on urban farming and sustainability influence other fighters’ views of success and life after MMA?
The conversation explores psychological warfare in MMA, how Rose and Pat “ghosted” Joanna mentally, and how Rose’s intuition and past struggles shape her approach to fear, safety, and big‑fight anxiety.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In what ways can MMA promotions better highlight fighters like Rose—who don’t rely on trash talk—without sacrificing viewership and hype?
They close by discussing coaching relationships, Rose’s desire to fight only a few more years, and her bigger mission: using her platform to promote kindness, sustainable living, and a healthier culture in and beyond MMA.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How could Rose’s emphasis on kindness, authenticity, and symbiosis reshape gym cultures and coaching norms in a sport that often glorifies aggression and ego?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
And we're live.
(laughs)
What's up?
Oh, nothing. What's up, man?
Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it.
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
I like how you're dressed. Very casual, look like-
Yeah.
... you're like-
It's all about comfort these days.
... like, part, like, monk-like.
(laughs)
There's like a lot of monk-like to what you got.
Yeah.
The shaved head and the wooden beads and the whole deal.
Yeah, yeah.
You know?
I mean, I kinda decided that, like, I, ever since cutting my hair that, uh, I don't know, I'm just gonna do away with n- like not being, like not being comfortable in any area. So heels, um, you're gonna have to pay me to do that. (laughs)
Really?
Yeah. I don't know. It's just, uh, I'm not a big fan of heels 'cause I can't run away in them. (laughs)
That's a good point.
Yeah.
I think that's why they made them.
Yeah. (laughs)
I mean, it only makes sense. Like, girls wearing tight skirts-
Yeah.
... where y- your legs are constricted, right?
Yeah.
Or tight dresses that go down to your knees especially.
Yeah.
Those things are w- that's, like, a thing, where girls can, like, barely walk. You have the heels, your, your toes are down. It's like the opposite of being strong.
Right.
It's like you're very vulnerable, right?
Very vulnerable, yeah. Like, um, I don't know if it's just 'cause of, like, the way I grew up, but I was always, like, looking over my shoulder. Like, any time I was walking down the wrong alley, I was always, uh, you know, ready to scope out the area and, you know, just run and be able to run.
I think everybody's like that, though, right?
Yeah.
I mean, especially girls. You should be.
Yeah. I mean, just me in particular, just because I was the only girl that looked like myself. I was the smallest all the time or youngest or, like, the only White girl on my block, so it was always like, uh, I stood out. And, um, so yeah, I like to, I like to be safe.
That's smart.
Yeah. Or be able to, like, you know, throw a kick in these pants. (laughs)
(laughs)
(laughs)
Yeah, those, what are those?
Yeah.
Like sweatpants or something? What do you got on there?
Uh, these are called harem pants.
Harem pants?
Yeah.
Let me see. Get up there with that. Oh, they're crazy. They're like-
Yeah.
They've got cool designs on them. What are those designs?
Um, I don't really know, but they're-
It's wild.
... super comfy. And I got, um, they came off this website called harem pants.com or something like that.
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