UFC strawweight champion Carla Esparza entered UFC 185 with the belt. Joanna Jedrzejczyk would exit with it.
Esparza's game plan was no surprise to anyone. The Cookie Monster was going to use her American wrestling to stifle the challenger's European striking.
The surprise, however, came when Jedrzejczyk effortlessly scrambled out of an early takedown and then stuffed every single attempt thereafter. That left the undersized champ stranded in the challenger's world. Jedrzejczyk battered Esparza with rangy punches and kicks and sealed the fight in the second round with a lethal volley.
So what did we learn from Saturday's contest?
Carla Esparza Might Not Be That Good
Something seemed off with Esparza at UFC 185. The Cookie Monster showed Rory MacDonald-like stoicism entering the cage. At the time, it seemed like she had a killer cool. In retrospect, it felt more like she was walking the green mile.
As is custom when a top MMA fighter loses, we take out the metaphorical magnifying glass and scour her career in an attempt to answer the question of "how did we not see this coming?"
Esparza was quite impressive on The Ultimate Fighter Season 20. Her competition was fierce, but she defeated Angela Hill, Tecia Torres, Jessica Penne and Rose Namajunas with little difficulty. Jedrzejczyk, however, was the first fighter she faced who was big and strong and had adequate time to prepare for her.
This may have simply been an off day for Esparza, sure. But I won't blame you if you feel bearish about the now-former champ going forward.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk May Be Champ for a While
Striking? Check. Takedown defense? Check. Size and strength? Check. That's a lot for the newly minted champion to work with.
Make no mistake, this was a downright dreadful performance by Esparza. While the former champ has traditionally dominated with her wrestling, she was absolutely lost when Jedrzejczyk started stuffing her.
Still, while the women's strawweight division is actually ripe with talent, there are few legitimate threats to the new champ on paper.
The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 Was Pointless
TUF20 was such a great idea. The long-running reality series is tired at best, obsolete at worst, and injecting some honest-to-goodness importance (in the form of a for-the-title tournament) was a welcome change for the show...in theory. In reality, TUF20 wound up being disappointingly similar to other reality TV series, complete with merciless cattiness, divisive cliques and melodrama on par with any soap opera.
"But hey," we all told ourselves, "at least there is legitimate, high-level MMA to be enjoyed here. This season is special because we're getting to see a champion rise! That is definitely going to make all this worth sitting through!"
Then this! Eventual season winner and inaugural strawweight champion Esparza gets brutalized by somebody who wasn't involved with the show. That's a disappointing turn no matter how you slice it.
The UFC Is Incredibly Lucky
Esparza deserved the title, no doubt. She was dominant on The Ultimate Fighter and was a beast in Invicta. But boy, she isn't a marketable fighter.
Her chain wrestling is legitimately formidable, and when she starts snowballing, she is hard to hold back. That, however, is the long way of saying that most fans would say she's boring. Not only that, but with no outstanding rivalries and no compelling contenders for her, she had a Demetrious Johnson-like ceiling when it came to buyrates.
Jedrzejczyk, on the other hand? Scrappy. Tough. Brawler. That's something. More importantly, though, she is Polish.
Poland is a potentially great market for the UFC, and the success of KSW gives Zuffa a pre-installed fanbase. While the UFC has traditionally had trouble securing Polish talent (Mamed Khalidov, Damian Grabowski and Marcin Held are tearing it up in other promotions), Jedrzejczyk is a Conor McGregor-like turnkey to a country with eight times the population of Ireland.
Lucky!
