Carla Esparza’s recapture of the UFC strawweight title puts her on a collision course with Zhang Weili. Zhang Weili picked up a victory over Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 275, with Dana White declaring that doing so earned the Chinese fighter a shot at the title. Carla Esparza isn’t looking to work around Zhang Weili’s schedule, however, pointing out to the New York Post that, as champ, it really should be the contender working to her timeline.
“I definitely don’t feel like I’m in a position where I should rush just because Weili wants a certain date. I’m not trying to go on her timeline. I’m the champion, and I feel she needs to go on my timeline.”
Carla Esparza’s previous reign as strawweight champ came to an early end when she was dethroned by Joanna Jedrzejczyk, with the Polish fighter racking up five title defenses at the time. Esparza believes that the breakneck pace of her rise through the UFC led to that early defeat, and won’t let the same mistake happen again.
Esparza Unconvinced by Zhang Weili Fight
“That was honestly a big regret of mine, letting the pressure push me into jumping back so quickly after having gone through so much fighting [on] The Ultimate Fighter.
That was my fifth fight in eight months. It’s really draining. That was a big regret of mine, not letting myself recover a little bit and jumping straight back into it because feeling pressured and wanting to make the UFC happy. But in the end, if I’m losing my title, then what was it all worth anyway?”
Carla recaptured the UFC strawweight belt in a lacklustre snoozefest against Rose Namajunas. The fight was one of the worst of the year, if not all time, and Rose Namajunas and her camp still believe they won the controversial decision. There’s no bad blood between the two camp, however.
“You’re in there, you can feel one way, and that’s not necessarily how it looks on the outside. I still felt very confident that I won the fight after watching it, but it was nice to have a better understanding of everything that happened.
[Namajunas’ coach, Pat Barry] sent me a message, and he was super positive and congratulatory and was basically like, ‘You guys both had a game plan. You guys are both super talented. Nobody broke the other’s will. And that’s just kind of how it goes.’ He was really cool about it. And [I] have all the respect for them.”
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