Rose Namajunas and her coach Pat Barry have endured serious criticism over their approach to Namajunas’ title defense against Carla Esparza at UFC 274. Speaking on The MMA Hour, Barry insisted that the dethroned strawweight champ stuck to the fight plan over the course of the five-round snoozefest.
“If you make mistakes at this level, the consequences are pretty heavy. The consequences are pretty heavy, man. So we went into this fight with a strategy. We have Carla memorized, man. We know everything that she’s going to do before she does it. We know what it looks like, we know when to avoid, when to attack. This is a strategic, perfect game plan. And just so everyone knows, we went in there for the win.
Pat Barry Blames “The Slipperiest Canvas” for Thug Rose Title Loss
The plan was to win the fight. The plan was to do this thing in particular, and if you do this thing, people are going to start booing — they are going to start booing — but that’s only because they don’t know what’s going on. And when they do start booing, Carla is going to open up — and when she does, bam, there it is. That’s the game.”
The crowd did end up booing, but Carla Esparza stuck to her own plan, ultimately taking the win. Barry blamed “the slipperiest canvas you can ever fight on” for Rose’s apparent inability to control the fight.
“In the fight, [Namajunas] did everything perfect, bro. Perfect. I love the UFC and I’ve loved everything that UFC does for everyone, and I love it, I love the organization. But I will say, in the fight, there’s three moments — but there’s two in particular — where bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, here it comes, this is the time, and when Rose went to throw the punch, her foot slipped.
And I saw that. I saw it. I saw her foot slide. And when it did, I know my head went crazy. … And when the opportunity for that one thing that we trained for came again and she went — foot slipped a second time.
I love UFC and everything they do, but this is, out of all the fights I’ve ever had, even back in my career, this is the slipperiest canvas you can ever fight on.”
Was this the right game plan for Rose Namajunas? Is the slippery canvas to blame? Did Pat Barry get this one wrong? Let us know in the comments.
