“Cookie Monster” will rematch incumbent champion Rose Namajunas—the woman she submitted to win the 115-pound title in 2014—in the UFC 274 co-feature on Saturday at the Footprint Center in Phoenix. The resurgent Esparza enters the Octagon on the strength of a five-fight winning streak. She last appeared at UFC Fight Night 188, where she took care of Xiaonan Yan with punches in the second round of their May 22 pairing.
As Esparza makes final preparations for her second encounter with Namajunas, a look at some of the other rivalries that have helped shape her career to this point:
Bec Rawlings
Esparza captured the vacant Invicta Fighting Championships strawweight title with a hard-earned unanimous decision over the free-spirited Australian in the Invicta 4 headliner on Jan. 5, 2013 at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. All three judges saw it as a 50-45 clean sweep. Esparza established her superiority in the first round, where she knocked her counterpart off-balance with a stout combination, struck for a takedown and unleashed some effective ground-and-pound. Eventually, the Bellator MMA veteran moved into position to threaten Rawlings with a rear-naked choke. Those advances were denied. Takedowns were the story throughout the five-round affair, as Rawlings could not stay upright long enough to tip the scales in her favor. Esparza grounded her in all five rounds and rarely strayed from her comfort zone. Still, Rawlings performed well in her first appearance on American soil, as she tagged Esparza with a hearty multi-punch volley in the third round and knocked her down late in the fifth.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk
The Polish muay Thai machine took out Esparza with punches in the second round to claim the undisputed women’s strawweight championship in the UFC 185 co-main event on March 14, 2015 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The stoppage was called 4:17 into Round 2. Jedrzejczyk denied all but one of the Team Oyama rep’s takedown attempts, thus trapping her on the feet. Esparza grew increasingly desperate, as hopelessness and fatigue set in. By the time the second round arrived, she was little more than a sitting duck. Jedrzejczyk fired away with grisly right hands and stinging jabs, slowly wearing down the Californian. With less than a minute remaining in the frame, she backed up Esparza with a right hand and swarmed with a brutal volley for the finish. With that, Jedrzejczyk became the first Polish fighter ever to win a UFC title.
Randa Markos
“Quiet Storm” outstruck Esparza to a split decision as part of the UFC Fight Night 105 undercard on Feb. 19, 2017 at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. All three cageside judges scored it 29-28: Hubert Earle and Don Robinson for Markos, Robert MacAvoy for Esparza. Markos handled her business on the feet and held her own in the clinch and on the ground. She countered an Esparza takedown in the first round, where she trapped the former UFC champion in a bottom-side crucifix and cracked her with repeated hammerfists to the side of the head. Esparza made her move late in Round 2, as she executed a takedown and cinched an arm-triangle choke. However, her bid for a submission ended with the bell. Markos cut loose with tone-setting strikes early in the third, delivering a spinning backfist and a straight right that got her counterpart’s attention. Esparza landed a pair of takedowns late in the frame but failed to consolidate them with meaningful damage. Though she appeared to connect with an illegal knee to the head as Markos returned to her feet, it did not impact the verdict.
Cynthia Calvillo
Esparza turned away the previously unbeaten Team Alpha Male prospect when she laid claim to a three-round unanimous decision in their UFC 219 strawweight showcase on Dec. 30, 2017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. All three judges scored it 29-28. Calvillo struck for a takedown inside the first minute, freed herself from an attempted armbar and passed to side control before applying her ground-and-pound, knees to the body included. The two women exchanged liberally in the second round, but Esparza started to turn the tide with two takedowns of her own. The former UFC and Invicta champion hit the accelerator in the third, where she fired tight punching combinations inside Calvillo’s looping strikes, made a pass at a guillotine and buzzed the Californian’s tower with a picturesque left hook to punctuate her latest victory.
Alexa Grasso
Takedowns and top control were enough to propel Esparza to a contentious majority decision over the Lobo Gym standout in the UFC Fight Night 159 co-main event on Sept. 21, 2019 in Mexico City. Two of the three judges—Douglas Crosby and Rick Winter—scored it 29-29 for Esparza, while Brian Puccillo had it deadlocked at 28-28. Esparza struck for multiple takedowns in the first and second rounds, managed to neutralize onetime Invicta headliner and kept the fight in her comfort zone. Everything changed in Round 3, where Grasso nearly finished it on two separate occasions. She rocked Esparza with a left hook, flurried with punches and stuffed two subsequent takedown attempts. However, she did not fully capitalize on the moment before a crowd of 10,112 at Mexico City Arena. Esparza snatched a single-leg, scrambled on top and wandered into an armbar. Grasso rolled to a dominant position and bent the former strawweight champion’s arm beyond its bounds. Esparza refused to tap, withstood a final standup exchange and put her fate in the hands of the judges. The loss was Grasso’s first in seven career appearances in her native Mexico.