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Carla Esparza has revealed why Rose Namajunas’ win over Zhang Weili helped her chances of reaching number one contender status.
At UFC 261, Namajunas shocked the world yet again by knocking Weili out with a vicious head kick.
The win helped Rose become a two-time UFC strawweight champion and, in the process, left many dubbing the Carla Esparza vs Yan Xiaonan fight a title eliminator.
Carla Esparza’s route back to the title
Carla Esparza went on to dominate Xiaonan and win via TKO, and during a recent interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, she explained why her history with Namajunas helps her in the debate over who gets the next title shot.
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“Yeah, not only my history with Rose, but Joanna’s history with Rose. I think Weili and Joanna had such an epic fight that having a part two could’ve made sense. But I think with Rose, especially given that Joanna has recently lost to her twice, and obviously that I have a win over Rose, I think the fight just definitely makes a lot more sense.”
Namajunas beat Joanna Jędrzejczyk in consecutive fights at UFC 217 and UFC 223 to cement her place as the UFC strawweight champion, and on the flip side, Carla Esparza was the inaugural champ of the division thanks to her submission win over Namajunas in The Ultimate Fighter 20 finale.
Carla Esparza has worked unbelievably hard to get back to the top of the mountain and while she isn’t all the way there just yet, a five-fight winning streak is a pretty impressive way to get yourself in the conversation.
'Cookie Monster' also noted that she’d like to get back in the cage at some point between September and December.
If the UFC decide to book Namajunas vs. Esparza 2 in that time frame, they could also push ahead with plans for Jędrzejczyk vs. Weili 2 - making for an unofficial set of semi-finals.
It’s really hard to go wrong at strawweight given the fighters involved and as we look ahead to the remainder of 2021, there’s a whole lot of potential chaos to be enjoyed.
