“I was removed for inactivity” - Former two-time UFC champ addresses retirement rumors in new statement

A former two-time UFC champion recently addressed retirement rumors after the promotion's latest updated rankings.

Prior to last week's pay-per-view event, it was reported that Carla Esparza had been removed from the rankings due to inactivity, which had fans speculating that she was retiring from the sport. It came as a surprise, especially considering that her inactivity was understandable as she was pregnant and gave birth a few months ago.

The former two-time strawweight champion recently took to her Instagram account, where she addressed the retirement rumors and provided more clarity on what's next for her. 'Cookie Monster' mentioned that she is not planning on retiring at the moment and noted that she is remaining cautious with her layoff:

"During the postpartum period there is relaxin and progesterone in the joints and their surrounding structures...which causes a slackening of the ligaments and can greatly increase the chance of injury during training. Just trying to have an intelligent approach to my comeback and do everything in my power to avoid an injury setback."

It will be interesting to see when Esparza will return and whether the UFC will stick by its stance on her removal from the rankings by matching her up against another unranked opponent when she returns.

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When did Carla Esparza last compete in the UFC?

If Carla Esparza returns to the octagon this year, it will have been two years since she has been out of action.

'Cookie Monster' last competed at UFC 281 in Nov. 2022, where she defended her strawweight championship against Zhang Weili. She had regained her title following her win over Rose Namajunas earlier that year and was making the first title defense of her second reign as champion.

The fight didn't go according to plan for Esparza as Weili earned a dominant win after submitting her via rear-naked choke at 1:05 of the second round.