Carla Esparza is excited to be fighting Zhang Weili at UFC 281.
Esparza reclaimed the strawweight title back in May with a lackluster decision win over Rose Namajunas. Then, following Weili’s KO win over Joanna Jedrzejczyk, it was clear she would be fighting for the belt next. Esparza, meanwhile, is excited to put on an entertaining fight after how the last one played out.
Carla Esparza On Winning The Title
“It’s definitely a bummer to win a fight like that,” Esparza said in an interview on Morning Kombat. “Winning a title – that’s always going to be a good day, right? Winning any fight (is good). Not being able to just have, like, this strong performance or this strong finish or just show all the work that you’ve been putting in camp, it is a bummer. And obviously, the fans were disappointed. It did definitely put a little bit of a cloud over the win, but that’s the right I can make in this fight. I’m excited to put it all on the line.”
According to Carla Esparza, she believes she tried to press the action but Namajunas didn’t. Against Weili, Esparza doesn’t expect that to be an issue as he knows the Chinese fighter will be aggressive from the get-go.
“It is what it is,” Esparza said. “You had these kind of two conflicting game plans, I guess. Of course, I wanted to go forward, and I think that I did, but I wasn’t going to be reckless with a fighter like Rose, who’s basically like a sharpshooter when it comes to knockouts. I think she was kind of waiting for me to lose my patience and get wild, which didn’t happen. Rose and I have together in our first fight and in just the past have put on a lot of exciting fights.”
Carla Esparza is on a six-fight win streak and is also the inaugural strawweight title with a submission win over Rose Namajunas. However, she lost her next fight by TKO to Joanna Jedrzejczyk so she is hoping to defend the strap for the first time.
Who do you have winning in this fight? Carla Esparza or Zhang Weili?
