At the end of the Strawweight bout at UFC 274, the judges agreed on a decision that Carla Esparza did perform better in this event. Hence, they stripped Rose Namajunas from her title. It is really a tough decision. When both fighters do the bare minimum in a fight you cannot tell who won and who lost.
Rose Namajunas Is Confident That She Won The UFC 274 Bout Against Carla Esparza
After the fight at the press conference, Rose seems like she is not aware of what is happening. She sat down on the chair and looked quite surprised and confused. How did she manage to lose the title?
The judges of the bout were basically forcing themselves to give them a 10-9 score in some of the rounds, since no significant strikes, nor did takedowns happen.
“I won that fight. I stuck to the strategy. It felt like as if I landed more shots. I took her down, that must count. None of her takedowns were significant. None of them had any control time over me. She hit me with, I’d say, one good punch. And then, maybe another time, her forearm clashed into my nose at some point.” – Namajunas says through evident confusion. – “Other than that, maybe a couple of low kicks. However, I didn’t feel them or anything. I know I did the damage, I controlled the fight, and I’m proud of myself because I stuck to my strategy. Because I know that in all of Carla’s fights, she just baits people in, and she tries to get people to attack her.”
However, no baits, no significant shots, no significant takedowns, or anything happens throughout the whole fight. And also, the official UFC stats are countering what Rose says.
According to the stats, Rose had landed only 28 of the significant strikes on Carla, or about 36%. Carla on the contrary has better success at landing these shots. She landed 42 significant strikes or around 48%.
The first round is the one with the most action. That is when about half of the significant strikes happened. The second round is a disappointment, and the third one is like it did not even exist at all. In the third round, a record-breaking five shots were landed in total. In total combined for both fighters. That is a total disaster of a round.
Nevertheless, Rose has more uplifting words for her performance and for her as a fighter. She continues – “That’s the decision I made at the moment, but I am an exciting fighter. I’m a finisher. I’ve got one of the highest finishing rate. So I don’t think that I was getting the boos. I’m pretty sure that was Carla. Obviously, I want to have exciting fights, so that kind of stings a little bit too. So I dunno.”
She continues once more to brag about how she did not even feel the non-existing low kicks that Carla ‘landed’. All in all, the fight did not fulfill the expectations. We were promised a medium-rare steak, we were served a vegetable salad.
