UFC 274: Carla Esparza defeated Rose Namajunas.
Carla Esparza defeated Rose Namajuna via split decision (47-48, 49-46, 48-47), at UFC 274 on Saturday, May 7, 2022, live from the Footprint Center in Phoenix, AZ.
“I had a game plan… You never know what is going to happen with the judges. I felt I was the aggressor, I was going after it… It’s really hard, you never want to have a fight like that for the crowd,” said Esparza, who was booed heavily throughout her interview. In addition to recapturing the strawweight title, Esparza is getting married next week.
The two women were extremely cautious to start, feeling each other out for the first 90 seconds. The crowd was vocally behind Namajunas. Esparza landed a combination. Namajunas landed a pair of jabs. The first round saw the fighters combine to land a total of six strikes.
The second was off to the same slow start until Esparza went for the takedown. Namajunas was able to escape the takedown. Despite the action looking like it was going to pick up after the takedown attempt, the women returned to their inactivity. Namajunas landed a good left hand in the final minute with Esparza responding with a leg kick. The Phoenix crowd started doing the wave to entertain themselves. Like the first round, the second round could have been scored 10-10.
Namajunas came out more aggressively for the third round. Esparza landed a kick to the body. Esparza landed a takedown but Namajunas got right back to her feet and landed a strike. Esparza went for another takedown but quickly gave up. The two women again returned to the middle of the Octagon and fainted a lot but didn’t land a lot.
Despite doing very little through three rounds both of the fighters’ corners were encouraging the stance their fighters were taking. Esparza landed a leg kick and a knee to the body. Namajunas landed a shot on the break. Esparza took Namajunas down with a single leg. Namajunas was again able to get up right away. Partway through the round, commentators Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan were discussing this fight among the worst fights in UFC history. Namajunas landed a strong right but Esparza went for another takedown. Between rounds, Esparza had to ask her corner what round it was.
The fifth round got off to another slow start. The women traded strikes but continued to be hesitant to engage each other. Namajunas landed a nice right hand but could not follow it up. Finally, referee Keith Peterson warned the women to pick it up. The women continued to move around and throw faints. Namajunas changed levels and landed the takedown at the very end of the round. The crowd booed immediately after the horn.
Namajunas and Esparza first fought on the season finale of The Ultimate Fighter on Dec. 12, 2014. Esparza won the fight, submitting Namajunas to become the first UFC women’s strawweight championship. The careers of Namajunas and Esparza have been linked together ever since that fight.
In her first title defense, Esparza was defeated by Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 185. Jedrzejczyk would be champion until UFC 217 when she was knocked out by Numajunas. After successfully defending the title against Jedrzejeczyk, Numajunas lost her title to Jessica Andrade at UFC 237. Numajunas defeated Andrade in a rematch at UFC 251, earning a title shot. At UFC 261, Numajuns knocked out Zhang Weili to become the first woman to earn a second title reign.
Esparza’s path back to Namajunas and the strawweight championship was not as simple. After losing to Jedrzejeczyk, Esparza split her next six fights, winning three and losing three times. Since her first fight in 2019, Esparza rattled off five straight victories to earn her title fight at UFC 274.
