Carla Esparza becomes first UFC strawweight champion

Nissi Icasiano

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Carla Esparza becomes first UFC strawweight champion
Carla Esparza solidified her place in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship as she captured the inaugural women’s strawweight title

MANILA, Philippines – Carla Esparza solidified her place in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as she captured the inaugural women’s strawweight title by submitting Rose Namajunas in The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned season finale on Saturday, December 13 (PH Time) at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 27-year-old Esparza sealed it at the 1:26 mark of round three by forcing Namajunas to wave the white flag with a rear-naked choke.

“Oh my gosh, this is the most amazing, unreal feeling I’ve ever had in my life,” Esparza said in her post-fight interview.

Esparza took part of the tournament shortly after vacating the Invicta FC strawweight belt, which she claimed by outpointing Bec Rawlings via unanimous decision in January 2013.

Despite her vast experience competing in the 115-pound weight class, Esparza entered the scheduled five-round clash a slight underdog to Namajunas, who had received a lot of attention for her ability to finish opponents.

A hyper-aggressive Namajunas got off to a hot start, sprinting to the center of the Octagon and connecting a high head kick less than a minute in the bout.

Although she was rocked by Namajunas’ foot-strike, Esparza gained the upper hand by dragging her 5-foot-5 foe down to the mat.

Esparza struck for repeated takedowns in the second round, advanced to full mount and tore into Namajunas’ guard with thudding lefts and rights.

In addition, Esparza nearly earned a stoppage late in the aforementioned period as she dropped a series of unanswered elbows and punches, but referee Yves Lavigne stayed right on top of the action as Namajunas was saved by the bell.

Namajunas survived the initial onslaught but never seemed to recover as Esparza executed another takedown inside the first 15 seconds of the third stanza and latched on a body lock to have a rear-view of her cage counterpart.

Esparza slipped her arm under Namajunas’ chin and squeezed to get the tap and be crowned as the first UFC women’s strawweight champion.

With the impressive victory over Namajunas, Esparza improves her prizefighting standing to 10-2.

Moreover, she dedicated the win to her former teammate Shane Del Rosario, who passed away in December 2013.

According to FightMetric statistics, Esparza converted five of her seven takedown attempts and out-landed Namajunas in total strikes 109 to 27.

“Rose is such a phenomenal athlete. She’s so dangerous and has so many weapons. I knew it was going to be a tough fight. She caught me with a lot of things I didn’t see coming. In the end, I think wrestling brought me the win,” she said of her game plan against Namajunas.

On the other hand, Namajunas downgrades her win-loss card to 2-2 and is now suffering a two-match losing skid.

The 22-year-old “Thug” has also failed to break the record of light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones as the youngest fighter to win a UFC world title. – Rappler.com

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