Carla Esparza is hoping to dethorn Rose…
The 34-year-old part-Mexican and Ecuadorian mixed martial artist will fight Rose Namajunas in a UFC women’s strawweight title fight.
Namajunas will defend her belt against Esparza in the co-main event of UFC 274 on May 7 in Phoenix, UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell confirmed to the news.
Esparza beat Namajunas via third-round submission in December 2014 in the inaugural UFC women’s strawweight title fight. Nearly eight years later, the two women will meet again, with Namajunas as champion.
ESPN has Namajunas ranked No. 3 on its pound-for-pound women’s MMA fighter list and Esparza at No. 8. At strawweight, Namajunas is ranked No. 1 and Esparza is No. 3.
Namajunas (11-4) has won three straight fights, the last two against Zhang Weili. Most recently, the Milwaukee native, who trains out of Colorado, beat Zhang via split decision at UFC 268 in November.
Namajunas is a two-time UFC women’s strawweight champion with two title defenses under her belt.
Esparza (18-6) has won five in a row to earn the title shot. The California native is co
UFC 274 will be headlined by a lightweight title fight between champion Charles Oliveira and top contender Justin Gaethje, a longtime teammate of Namajunas.
The Namajunas-Esparza bout was first reported by Sports Illustrated.
