In what was truly one of the most bizarre title fights in recent UFC history, Carla Esparza regained her strawweight title about 8 years after winning it the first time. Everyone has a hot take about this fight and if you're a returning reader, you know one of the reasons I even started this blog was because I was tired of the hot take machine that has taken over so much of modern sports media. You'll also know that I'm someone who likes to try and put things in perspective and I don't like to say that something is the greatest or worst of all time or of the year until we have more of the data in front of us. Maybe it is just my personality, but I don't really like to complain about fights either. I like to just accept fights for what they are and enjoy them for what they do bring instead of dwelling on what they don't. Take the first two fights on the main card for example. Randy Brown vs Khaos Williams wasn't the most entertaining fight I've ever seen, but you just watch it for what is is and appreciate the fight for what did happen instead of what didn't. Shogun vs OSP was a little slow, but I can get past that when I know that Shogun is coming to the end of a legendary career. To me, that fight wasn't about the actual match we were seeing, but it was a way to send Shogun out with respect for one of the legends from the past eras. I would have preferred if the fight was better, but I can generally appreciate it for what it was and then move on to the next one. That is part of what makes MMA so great and why the card as a whole can be so fun. Not every fight is the same and some fights are frantic and others are slow. Some fights are all striking, while others are all grappling. It is having all of those styles and types of fight happening one right after another on the same card that adds to the atmosphere for me. With that said, there's no other way to describe Rose Namajunas vs Carla Esparza as a dud and that's putting it nicely. Sometimes, we just get these fights that don't work out the way we want and they went through some of them on the broadcast. Francis Ngannou vs Derrick Lewis is the one that stands out the most in my mind as something that just fell so short of what it could have been. I'm not one of those fans who are outraged and demanding money back or anything because that is ridiculous, but I have to imagine that the UFC is so disappointed with how that played out. Rose is one of their most popular champions and she lost in what will probably be on the short list for worst fight of the year. The difference for me is that we know there was effort that was left out there. For as slow as Shogun vs OSP was, I can sleep at night knowing that both of those guys largely fought within their means. I think Shogun and OSP largely did what they could and didn't really have anything else left to give. We know for a fact that both Carla Esparza and Rose Namajunas are significantly better than what they showed us Saturday night and that fight should have been so much better.
Because so little happened, I'm just going to one cumulative section and go through the entire fight and talk about both performances simultaneously instead of doing it for the each of them. In a fight of 5 brutally slow and empty rounds, the first may have been the slowest. Each fighter landed 4 total strikes and none of them were event remotely significant. Carla had the middle of the cage for much of the round, so I guess she won the first round on my scorecard. The second round was largely the same. Carla landed 4 strikes and Rose landed 3. Carla took the center of the cage for long stretches again and even attempted a takedown this time, so I suppose she should win this round as well. We saw a little more action in the third round where Rose out struck Carla 11-9 and stuffed all 3 of Carla's takedown attempts. I thought Rose's strikes were the most significant things that happened, so she gets the round. The fourth round was probably the most eventful round of the entire fight as Carla landed a big suplex takedown and Rose landed a nice right uppercut. Despite landing that punch solidly, Carla's multiple takedowns with 20 seconds of control were enough for me to give her that round as well. I had Rose winning the fifth as she landed 13 strikes and even got her own takedown at the very end of the fight. I scored in 48-47 for Carla Esparza, but if we're being honest, I don't think there was really an incorrect way to score the fight. There's the talk about the first and maybe the second being scored 10-10 and while that is within the judge's right to do, we know that they don't. I think a lot of that talk is sort of a waste of time because we know the judges aren't going to use the 10-10 round, so I don't see any point in arguing about it. I agree with Brett Okamoto's tweet that if the first round isn't 10-10, then there is no such thing, but I didn't expect to see one because we just never do. I'm not going to waste any time on it because I don't think it is really relevant to this fight specifically. There is a time and place to discuss the scoring and 10-9 must system, but I don't think that was what was wrong with this fight. Open scoring would have been a very interesting wrinkle for this fight as well, but that would need its entire post to talk about. I don't really have a strong opinion on open scoring by the way, which is why that post has never been made. I'm open to seeing it and I would go as far as to say that I would like to see it just to try it out, but I really am not passionate on the topic either way. What was more shocking to me and I think a more important talking point is that I genuinely can't believe that the both of them were just content to let that fight go to decision like that. I don't know how after the second round both of them came out and didn't decide to push for it harder. Every single round was hanging in the balance and neither of them tried to steal it. It was shocking how the both of them were so content to just leave their fate in the hands of judges who have proven time and time again to be untrustworthy. These are the same judges who miss easy decisions almost weekly, but we had two fighters on the same night who happened to be matched up trust the judges to score that fight in their favor. I just will never for the life of me understand how that happened. I can't imagine how disappointed Rose is in her performance. Imagine if Rose never gets back to the title. She could go out have a rocky rest of her career and never get another title shot and all of us will have to look back on things knowing she lost her title because she just wouldn't fight. It isn't an exaggeration to think that if she had landed 1 single strike more per minute over the entire fight that she not only could have won the fight, but won the fight 50-45. The amount of effort that could have taken her from a loss to a win is less effort than what she expended in any single minute of her last fight against Zhang Weili, but she just chose not to do it. Unless there was a secret injury or situation that we didn't know about, she lost because she chose time and time again to do nothing. That has to be an absolutely sickening feeling. Even though she won, the same applies to Carla Esparza. Carla has fought more years than what she has left and now that she's married, it is hard to say how long she really planned on continuing to fight. It wouldn't surprise me at all if she just rides out this title reign and then walks away whenever it comes to an end. Had she lost, I think it would have likely been her last shot at the title. To go out and have that performance be your last opportunity to get her belt back is just so odd to me. In a sport where such a huge percentage of the athletes have this warrior mentality and choose to go out on their sword so often, to see the exact opposite where two fighters chose to avoid conflict at all costs even with the title on the line is nothing short of shocking. The division will have to move on from that and hopefully with Carla at the helm, we'll get title defenses at a better pace than what we got with Rose.
Carla Esparza did win the fight and I guess I do have to credit her with knowing the scoring criteria. She made sure that she was the one who was taking the center of the cage and she was doing some advancing and shooting takedowns, so she was able to get the decision win on the judge's cards and on mine. Clearly, Rose respected her wrestling a great deal and that respect is what got her the win more than anything she actually did in the fight. Her next defense seems to be on a pretty clear trajectory with Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs Zhang Weili taking place next month. The winner of that fight seems to have a pretty clear path to the title shot and I would be pretty surprised if it went another direction. If there had to be another option, I think Marina Rodriguez has sort of separated from the rest of the pack I suppose. She's on the best run out of anyone at the top and she would also be a fresh face in title fights. I think the fact that she lost to Carla somewhat recently is probably enough that she'll have to sit behind the Joanna/Zhang winner. I think a fight between Rodriguez and Andrade could make some sense as a potential number one contender fight though for the following title fight. Carla has never fought Weili and hasn't fought Joanna since 2015, so I think even that is a fresh matchup given the amount of time that has passed. I think the winner next month is what the UFC is going to do and is probably the right call.
When it comes to Rose, her fight really confused me. I don't know if it was what she thought or if she was purely trusting her corner, but she really thought she had a 50-45 in that fight. The corner advice she was getting from Pat Barry would be worthy of a malpractice lawsuit if he was a doctor. Barry was somehow convinced that she was dominating and was relaying that advice to her, which only encouraged her to continue doing nothing. I don't want to hate on him too bad because he is biased for obvious reasons. Well, I guess maybe they aren't that obvious. If you didn't know Rose and Pat are engaged and have been for awhile. I don't remember hearing about if they ever officially got married, but that really isn't something I keep up with, so maybe I just missed it. I know he is biased, but if he is going to be that biased, then he is only doing her a disservice by being in her corner. To put it as frankly and simply as I can, I don't know what fight he was watching. The broadcast picked him up saying something to the effect of "listen to them booing, that means you're doing the right thing" which is almost never the case. I can't believe Trevor Whittman wasn't more convincing or vocal. Of course, it is ultimately Rose's fault, but her corner really failed her, at least from what we heard. There was that one moment before the fifth where we could hear Whittman telling her to put a stamp on it and really go for it, but she still chose not to. Given how inactive Rose is, it's hard to say when to expect her or if we should expect her to ever fight for the title again. She's never been someone who has really oozed the love for fighting like someone like Justin Gaethje does. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if she never fought again and that is her choice, which we should all support. She'll have plenty of big fights available if she so chooses, but I wouldn't expect her to walk into another title shot in the way Stipe Miocic has when he's lost his belt. I think she's going to have to get a win over a contender first. Her options are probably Marina Rodriguez, Jessica Andrade, and MacKenzie Dern. Andrade would be a trilogy fight and I have a hard time believing they would do that trilogy in a nontitle fight, so we'll put that one last out of the three. The other two would be pretty fun fights in my estimation. Dern is such a unique fighter that she could beat or lose to almost anyone on a given day. I think because Rodriguez beat Dern not too long ago, they would give Rodriguez the chance to get that win. I think Carla gets the winner of Zhang/Joanna, Rose fights Marina Rodriguez, and Dern fights Jessica Andrade. Rose vs Rodriguez is a great fight, so I really hope we get to see it. It would honestly just be so much fun. Please UFC, make that fight happen.
What do you guys think? How did you score the fight? Is it all but final that Esparza will be defending against the winner of Zhang Weili vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk? Who should Rose fight next? What do you make of the fight and the whole situation? Leave your thoughts in the comments and thanks for reading. Have a great day.
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