What’s the Story?
Former Women’s Strawweight Champion Carla Esparza is back in action on February 19th in Halifax, Canada at UFC Fight Night 105 against fellow TUF 20 veteran Randa Markos. Esparza is fighting for the first time since April 2016, where she won a unanimous decision over Juliana Lima, and she’ll be looking to make it back to back wins since losing her belt to current champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Markos, on the other hand is coming off a first round armbar loss to Courtney Casey at UFC 202 last August and will be trying to rebound with a win over a highly ranked, and highly regarded fighter.
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On The Ultimate Fighter Season 20, Markos was paired with Felice Herring, a teammate of Esparza’s, in the quarter-finals. Markos won via scarfhold armlock in round one. After the fight, Markos told Esparza that the loss should shut her friend up, and Esparza replied, telling Markos that if she stopped acting like a “b*tch” then she’d shut up.
This back and forth unfortunately didn’t result in the two women fighting, until now. We’ll have to see if this feud resurfaces.
The heart of the matter
Before losing to Jedrzejczyk, number three ranked Esparza had an impressive five fight win streak, including winning The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 and being awarded the inaugural UFC Strawweight championship.
Markos has struggled to get momentum lately, and hasn’t had back to back wins since 2014. She reached the semi-finals of the very tournament Esparza won, missing out on a fight with Esparza in the final after losing to Rose Namajunas.
It will be interesting to see how the pair match up, because we have not seen much of Esparza since her loss to Jedrzejczyk as she struggled with injures and Markos hasn’t quite been able to show her best abilities in the UFC so far.
What’s next?
A win on February 19th will be important for both fighters. A win for Esparza means that she puts herself back into title contention, possibly getting a rematch with Jedrzejczyk depending on the circumstances, while a win for Markos gives her an opportunity to start climbing the rankings and reach contender status.
Sportskeeda’s take
This is a good match-up for both fighters. No doubt Esparza is the favourite, and coming off a long layoff she needed a lower ranked fighter to ease her back, and it also gives Markos the opportunity to beat a big name fighter and jump up in the rankings.
