Carla Esparza News

Chris Taylor - May 22, 2021

Tonight’s UFC Vegas 27 event is co-headlined by a key women’s strawweight matchup between top division contenders Carla Esparza and Yan Xiaonan. Esparza (18-6 MMA) will enter tonight’s contest sporting a four-fight winning streak, her latest being a split-decision victory over Marina Rodriguez. The former strawweight champion has gone 7-3 overall since losing her title to Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Adam D Martin - May 21, 2021

UFC women’s strawweight contender Carla Esparza wants a rematch with champion Rose Namajunas with a win over Yan Xiaonan at UFC Vegas 27. Esparza meets Xiaonan in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 27 this Saturday night. Esparza is the No. 4 ranked women’s strawweight while Xiaonan is ranked No. 3, so the winner of this fight will put themselves in a tremendous position to challenge Namajunas, who recently beat No. 1 ranked contender Weili Zhang at UFC 262 to win the 115lbs belt.

Drake Riggs - February 18, 2021

Rampant speculation has surrounded UFC 261 and its location. Now, it appears things will stay in Vegas with a pair of pivotal strawweight bouts. Combate reported on Thursday that the April 24 UFC pay-per-view event will no longer be at what was initially reported as Singapore. Instead, the promotion will stick with keeping things stateside in Las Vegas at the UFC Apex facility.

Adam Martin - December 30, 2020

UFC women’s strawweight contender Joanna Jedrzejczyk reacted to the potential of Carla Esparza getting a title shot, saying “Rose is next.” We all thought the plan was for UFC women’s strawweight champion Weili Zhang to fight Rose Namajunas next, but UFC president Dana White recently got into a public disagreement with Team Namajunas about her desire to actually fight for the belt. According to White, Namajunas doesn’t want to fight Zhang for the belt and the UFC is considering giving the title shot at 115lbs to the former champion Esparza instead. On her end, Team Namajunas has denied that and says that she just wants to fight.

Adam Martin - May 17, 2020

UFC women’s strawweight contender Carla Esparza told Claudia Gadelha to “leave the grease at home” for a potential rematch between the two rivals. Esparza and Gadelha previously fought at UFC 225 in June 2018, with Gadelha winning a tight split decision in a fight that many believe Esparza deserved to win. Following the fight, Esparza accused Gadelha of greasing, with the Brazilian firing back at the American, saying that she was just making excuses for why she lost the fight.

Tom Taylor - May 12, 2020

Former Invicta atomweight champion Michelle Waterson has issued a statement after her controversial decision loss to former UFC strawweight champ Carla Esparza at UFC 249. Waterson and Esparza battled for 15 minutes on the UFC 249 undercard. While Esparza was awarded a decision win, many fans felt the judges got the verdict wrong.

Cole Shelton - May 5, 2020

Michelle Waterson believes her UFC 249 fight against former champion Carla Esparza has title implications on the line. Waterson will make her return to the Octagon after a decision loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk back at UFC Tampa last October. She says she learned a lot about herself in that fight and says it proves she belongs at the top.

Harry Kettle - April 2, 2020

The world of mixed martial arts came together yesterday for a series of entertaining April Fools Day surprises. It’s safe to say that 2020 isn’t quite going as many had anticipated it would through the first few months of the year, and that goes both for MMA and the wider spectrum of society.

Adam D Martin - September 22, 2019

The UFC has announced the post-fight bonus award winners for the Mexico City card, and a pair of women’s strawweights won “Fight of the Night.” The UFC announced after the event that Carla Esparza and Alexa Grasso won $50,000 each for “Fight of the Night” for their back-and-forth co-main event fight, which Esparza ended up winning by majority decision. Here’s what the UFC said.

Natasha Hooper - September 22, 2019

A key women’s strawweight bout featuring former division champion Carla Esparza taking on Alexa Grasso co-headlined tonight’s UFC Mexico event. Esparza (14-6) entered the event looking to build off the momentum of her unanimous decision victory over Virna Jandiroba from back in April.

Chris Taylor - September 21, 2019

A key women’s strawweight bout featuring former division champion Carla Esparza taking on Alexa Grasso co-headlines tonight’s UFC Mexico event. Esparza (14-6) will be looking to build off the momentum of her unanimous decision victory over Virna Jandiroba from back in April.

Tom Taylor - May 1, 2019

Carla Esparza got the job done at UFC Fort Lauderdale over the weekend, defeating former Invicta champ Virna Jandiroba by unanimous decision. For the former UFC strawweight champ, the pressure was on heading into this fight, as another loss would have equated to a three-fight skid.

Chris Taylor - September 8, 2018

A key women’s strawweight contest served as the featured bout of tonight’s UFC 228 prelims as former division champion Carla Esparza took on surging contender Tatiana Suarez. Carla Esparza enters tonight’s fight with Suarez on the heels of a controversial split-decision loss to Claudia Gadelha which took place at June’s UFC 225 event in Chicago.

Drake Riggs - July 17, 2018

UFC 228 is pretty behind on getting itself put together. But in the coming weeks we’ll surely get some more clarity and today we start with the 115ers. Already in the works for the UFC’s return to Dallas, Texas is a strawweight battle between two of the division’s very best in Jessica Andrade and Karolina Kowalkiewicz.

Tom Taylor - June 13, 2018

Last weekend, on the undercard of the stacked UFC 225, former strawweight champion Carla Esparza gave up a close decision to perennial strawweight contender Claudia Gadelha. Shortly thereafter, she accused Gadelha of cheating, sharing her belief that the Brazilian was greasing on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.  “She cheated in the fight; she greased before the fight,” Esparza said. “I was considering saying something to the referee in between [rounds]. I was going to say, ‘She’s greasing! She’s greasing,’ but I didn’t really know how to go about it. … Even when I was trying to grab armbars during the fight my arms kept slipping down. She’s a cheater, but it doesn’t really surprise me. In my opinion, she’s been a pretty dirty fighter throughout, so it is what it is.”

Drake Riggs - June 11, 2018

It would seem that new UFC interim welterweight champion, Colby Covington isn’t the only one claiming that their UFC 225 opponent used some illegal tactics mid-fight this past Saturday night. Having fought in the second bout of the televised portion of the UFC 225 prelims, former UFC strawweight champion, Carla Esparza, like Covington also believes that she fell victim to her opponent greasing during their fight.

Drake Riggs - February 22, 2018

The strawweight division’s oldest matchup is finally set to take place again. Former UFC and Invicta FC champion, Carla Esparza and former title challenger, Claudia Gadelha will get another chance at getting to hurt each other. The two are set to due battle at UFC 225 in Chicago, Illinois. But as history shows…this isn’t the first time we were supposed to see these former top 2 115-pounders clash. Going back to the early days of Invicta, Esparza and Gadelha were the clear two very best strawweights on the planet so it only made sense for them to square off for the world title. Which was Invicta’s plan. So they booked the two for Invicta FC 4 to crown their inaugural strawweight champion. Gadelha suffered a broken nose prior to the fight and was unable to compete thus bumping Bec Rawling into her place to fill in.

Drake Riggs - February 14, 2018

One of the oldest matchups, if not the oldest matchup in the strawweight division’s history is set to take place and hopefully happen this time. The UFC announced on Wednesday that the perennial top five strawweight contender and former title challenger, Claudia Gadelha is expected to make her return at UFC 225 when she takes on the inaugural UFC champion and former Invicta FC champion, Carla Esparza. JUST ANNOUNCED: @ClaudiaGadelha_ takes on @CarlaEsparza1 in the Windy City at #UFC225❗️ pic.twitter.com/Z6AdLjnpwW