"He said, 'honey, if you have bumps or bruises, that’s perfectly ok with me, I knew what I signed up for when I asked a fighter to marry me. Carla Esparza Getty Images One lesson from her first championship reign, which lasted only three months in the winter of 2015, was to not rush back into the cage too quickly. I went to my fiancé, and what he told me sealed my decision. "Everyone wants to look and feel beautiful on their wedding day. And to be honest, I was really struggling with the decision of whether or not to change my wedding date. "Well, since the wedding is the week after the fight, I had a choice to make. This fight would take priority over everything, I was even willing to change my wedding date knowing that my fiancé, friends, and family would understand.
"When I was offered this fight date, I immediately said yes. "Fight and wedding are one week apart," she wrote. Marina Rodriguez - Marina Rodriguez came into the fight undefeated and it was her first loss.ACE SNAPS Paige VanZant serves up a stunning tennis-inspired look to leave fans in aweĮsparza took to Instagram to share her decision with fans: Weili was the strawweight champion from 2019 to 2021. In 2005, she trained in boxing at Broadway Gym in Los Angeles. Esparza is claiming that during Weili’s title run the UFC tried to match them up on multiple occasions. Esparza won wrestling tournaments, which earned her a four-year wrestling scholarship to attend Menlo College. While attending Redondo Union High School, she competed in basketball, running, and wrestling. Carla Esparza is from Californias Redondo Beach. The fight was the UFC debut of both women. Carla Esparza, Self: Bellator Fighting Championships. Rose Namajunas - The fight was for the inaugaral UFC women's strawweight championship. Bec Hyatt - The fight was for the inaugaral Invicta strawweight championship. Carla Esparza (CarlaEsparza1) / Twitter Carla Esparza CarlaEsparza1 1st ever UFC STRAWWEIGHT CHAMPION. She dominated Lima en route to a lopsided but unexciting unanimous decision. Jedrzejczyk ended up dominating Esparza en route to a second round knockout victory.Įsparza was out for a year before returning to fight Julianna Lima. Esparza dominated Namajunas en route to a second round rear-naked choke submission victory.Įsparza next signed to make her first title defense against feared and undefeated Polish striker Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Carla esparza professional#
Weight 115 Height 51 Wins 12 Losses 4 Draws 0 TKO/KO 12/3 25 SUB 12/4 33 DEC 12/5 42 Result Opponent Finish Round Cage Time Event Loc Date WIN : Maryna Moroz: DEC: 3: 5:00: Fight Night 112. Carla Kristen Esparza (born October 10, 1987) is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the Strawweight division of the Ultimate. UFC: Winning and then Losing the Belt Įsparza next made her UFC debut against castmate Rose Namajunas in the finale, for the inaugaral UFC women's strawweight title. Carla Esparza 'Cookie Monster' 12 - 4 - 0 DOB: 10-10-1987 Age: 35 years Division: W-Strawweight City/State: California Promotion: UFC. Esparza won the UFC Womens Strawweight Championship on Saturday, defeating Rose Namajunas via split decision (47-48, 49-46, 48-47) at UFC 274 in Phoenix. The winner at the end of the season would be crowned the first UFC women's flyweight (strawweight) champion.Įsparza eventually won the show defeating the likes of Angela Hill, Tecia Torres and Jessica Penne back to back. Unfortunately Esparza was injured and replaced by undefeated Claudia Gadelha.Įsparza recovered and was next set to defend against Gadelha but she was unfortunately forced to pull out again with a bacterial infection on the day of the event.Ī few days later it was announced that Esparza - and several other Invicta fighters including Gadelha and Hyatt - had signed with the UFC to fight on the twentieth season of The Ultimate Fighter. She most recently fought Bec Hyatt for the inaugaral title defeating Hyatt via a dominant unanimous decision.Įsparza was next set to face undefeated Ayaka Hamasaki in her first title defense. 3 UFC: Winning and then Losing the Belt Esparza is the only blemish on Rodriguez’s otherwise perfect record (16-1-2) and she’s since won four fights in a row against Top 10-ranked opponents.