More than seven years after meeting in the first UFC strawweight title fight, Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza clash for a second time with the championship belt hanging in the balance.
Namajunas became the first two-time champ in the division’s history last April when she knocked out Zhang Weili with a head kick just 78 seconds into their bout at UFC 261. A little more than six months later, she affirmed his position as the top strawweight in the sport with a second straight victory over the Chinese former champion, edging out Zhang on the scorecards.
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“Thug Rose” is 9-2 since her first encounter with Esparza, with a pair of championship wins and pair of successful title defenses, plus she has successfully navigated rematches against Zhang, Jessica Andrade, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, so facing a familiar foe is entirely familiar to her at this point.
After dominating Namajunas to emerge as the inaugural UFC strawweight champion at the end of Season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter, Esparza has been forced to take the long road back to title contention. She dropped the belt in her first title defense and had a couple other stumbles along the way, but “The Cookie Monster” is unbeaten in her last five and coming off her most emphatic performance since that initial win over Namajunas.
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The 34-year-old veteran has always been a smothering grappler, but she shown increased ferocity and aggression last time out against Yan Xiaonan, pummeling the Chinese contender with elbows and punches from top position to earn a second-round stoppage win and cement her standing as the No. 1 contender.
Rematches are always intriguing and this one has been a long time coming, with plenty having changed since their first encounter.
Will Namajunas remain queen of the division and unbeaten in rematches or can Esparza become the second two-time champion in strawweight history?
