Esparza was always going to lose that fight... never belonged in it to begin with

When Carla Esparza defeated "Thug" Rose for the women's belt a few months back I agreed with most of the pundits and professionals when they said that it was one of the most boring fights of all time. This was in stark contrast to most of the rest of Rose's fights and I couldn't really understand what went wrong there. For 5 rounds neither Rose nor Esparza actually did anything and they barely made contact with one another. By the time the judges scorecards were read and Carla was crowned the new champion I think she was just as surprised as anyone. She didn't deserve to be crowned champion but then again, neither did Rose and I think there was at least some sort of bias to eliminate Rose from holding the belt out of spite for putting on such a terrible performance.

I think it was expected that Rose was going to steamroll Carla and when she failed to do that, or even to really make contact with her at all in that fight, that a lot of people were upset.

So when the fight happened last week where Esparza was meant to defend her crown I don't think anyone really thought she was going to be able to do it, especially not against Zhang Weili who I think would have been the champion a long time ago had Rose not gotten a lucky head kick in.

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Although she was just a +300 underdog, Carla looked out of her element from the moment that fight started. Except for one reverse that was quickly corrected on the ground by Zhang, there was exactly 0% of that fight that looked like it was going Esparza's way. Hell, even when the now ex-champ was walking to the Octagon she looked stoic and dare i say, afraid about what was about to come her way.

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Carla is known, kind of, as a wrestler but I think there is more to her being ranked so high than just that. You see, Carla has a victory over "Thug Rose" and then the rest of her victories are a who's who of "who the hell are these people?" You've likely never heard of them and while I can't say for sure that this is the case, I feel as though there are many more fans and therefore athletes that are interested in the flyweight and Bantamweight divisions for the women. The strawweight division has only a handful of people that could be considered sellable to a crowd and with the horrible performance by Rose last time around that doesn't bode well for the rest of the division.

Zhang was always going to win this fight against Carla and I think everyone knew this including both fighters in the Octagon on Saturday.

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The crazy thing about the submission finish on the part of Zhang isn't that it happened, but that Carla actually initiated them both taking the fight to the ground. She kind of did it in a sloppy way though and that is why Zhang ended up commanding the ground game immediately just like she was when they were standing. I suspect that Carla realized after one round of trying to stand up with Zhang, that she was not going to be able to last in the upright position and needed to change something and fast.

When it was all over, nobody was surprised and the Chinese 2-time champion truly looked like she belongs at the top. Esparza looks like she probably wont get many more shots at gold if she ever does again. I would argue that she never belonged there in the first place and was only in the match against Rose because there was no one else to fight. If Rose had actually turned up to that fight, I think things would have been very different. Now we just have to see if Namajunas has learned her lesson about fight pacing and how you have to actually attempt to strike your opponent if you want a victory