The first UFC women's strawweight title fight is upon us, fight fans.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 competitors Carla Esparza and Rose Namajunas ran the gauntlet during the latest season of the UFC's reality show, destroying opponent after opponent and securing their chance to capture UFC gold.
It goes down live from Las Vegas, Nevada, Friday evening during The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale, and Bleacher Report took the time to catch up with Fox Sports Analyst Karyn Bryant to break down that fight and the TUF 20 Finale card as a whole.
See what she thinks of this inaugural strawweight championship matchup and watch her battle yours truly through four rounds of predictions for the evening's card.
(Bleacher Report): The big night is upon us. The first ever UFC women's strawweight title is earned tomorrow night. Just how important is this for women's MMA and the UFC in general?
(Bryant): I think it's incredibly important. Obviously, we've seen the success that the bantamweight division has had, and I think that by expanding the women in the UFC, we're going to bring in a lot more fans.
These are really dynamic, exciting fighters. They fight at an incredibly fast pace, they're technically proficient. This is just going to be a lot of fun and add a lot of excitement. I think it's a huge night for women…I think this is just one of the next steps in the evolution for the exposure of the women but also just for people who are fans. There's more to women's fighting than (UFC women's bantamweight champion) Ronda (Rousey) and that one division.
And right now we have Rose (Namajunas) vs. (Carla) Esparza for the title, obviously, and that looks like a really fantastic matchup on paper to me. Is this how you saw the season shaking out at first? Are you surprised that it's those two in the finale?
No, actually, I'm not. I've known Rose for a few years, I know how dedicated she's been to evolving as a fighter, and clearly, with Carla being the No. 1 seed (during the show) and being a champion, she had to live up to a lot of expectations, and that was, I'm sure, quite difficult, having the weight of that expectation on you going through it.
But it doesn't surprise me. Carla is so, obviously, skilled and has fought at a great level for a long while and, as a champion, she brings her best game into the Octagon.
But Rose is young, flashy, creative, unpredictable, and I think it's a great matchup. I'm actually not surprised that those two made it to the finals.
As you mentioned, Rose is really flashy and unpredictable. Just watching the season play out, she moves differently than some of the other women. She's got some of that Anthony Pettis, super quick twitch going on. And it seems that, when Dana White said there was a Ronda Rousey on this season of TUF, it had to be Rose. So, what is Rose's ceiling do you think? Does she have a Rousey-like future?
I don't know that we've ever had someone on TUF finish two fights in a row with kimuras. I'd have to do my fact checking on that one, but it was like, 'Oh, man, a kimura! Sweet!' with the first one, then the second one, it was just like, 'Ahh! She got another one!' So I think the comparison to Ronda in that, perhaps, she has a signature move, a signature finish, is warranted. That could be pretty amazing to find someone fearing a kimura when they walk into the Octagon. I think that's kind of great because it's just such a badass move!
I think she has an incredible future ahead of her, and she's still defining who she is and evolving, certainly, but she has so much confidence. What I noticed from doing the TUF Talks (the weekly TUF recap show on Fox Sports 1) is that she's very composed. She seems very comfortable with who she is, and that's a quality that some of the other girls I don't think have yet. They're still trying to figure out who they are and who they are as a fighter, but I feel like Rose has got that figured out. That confidence just sort of seeps out of her in everything she's doing, so I feel like she's got a great head on her shoulders, and she's really got the right approach to what she's about to be doing on Friday night.
And she's so young, not just in the sport, experience-wise, but she's only 22 period!
It's crazy. We were in (Las) Vegas one time, and we were with Pat (Barry), and we were going to go out, and she couldn't get into the club. *laughs* But she's just such a cool girl; I'm really excited this is all happening for her.
That's awesome. She couldn't beat up the doorman to get in?
No, I know, right? That's the thing, she has a great personality. She's a real chill girl, and she just kind of rolled with it.
That's hilarious, but in all seriousness, being only 22, is she even close to her peak, athletically, yet?
No! That's what's amazing. It's funny because you made the Anthony Pettis analogy, and it's that whole thing of like, 'Wow, they're already amazing, and they're so young, and they've got those flashy kicks and that unpredictability and that charisma and that swagger. And they're only just getting warmed up.' That, with her and Anthony, is incredibly exciting.
But, yeah, she's far from peaking. She knows she needs to maybe evolve—and evolve maybe isn't even the right word because she can scramble on the ground and everything—but I have a feeling she's probably like, 'Yeah, maybe wrestling is the next thing I have to get awesome at.' Whereas she's such a great striker right now, I feel like that's her strength, but I'm sure she's drilling takedown defense and takedowns all the time.
I feel like a big storyline coming into the season was that people were picking Tecia Torres and (Joanne) "JoJo" Calderwood to be in this position, in the finals. But Tecia lost twice, and JoJo obviously got taken out by Rose. How legitimate do you think they are in the division? Do they pick up wins tomorrow and re-establish themselves, or are they maybe not as good as we thought?
I don't think it's a question of them not being as good as we thought, I think they just faced better fighters. I guess with Tecia and Randa (Markos), that one really surprised people because Randa was a little more of an unknown entity, so just based on, 'Oh, I know Tecia!' they thought she would win.
I don't think their value isn't really what we expected, I just think the level of competition keeps evolving, and we also have women fighting in the strawweight division fighting on Saturday (at UFC on Fox 13) and there are some other great women in the mix and things, so I don't think they're overrated. That's not it. Fighting in The Ultimate Fighter house with that set of circumstances is different.
I think on Friday we're going to see people at their best. Not that they weren't at their best in the house, but because of the situation, you know, a lot of them said, 'Hey, I'm used to having my regular coaches or certain rituals they would do, certain things they would do before the fight. It's a totally different experience, the emotional element, the pressure. So I have a feeling a lot of these girls didn't perform as well as they could and that tomorrow we're going to see the best of everybody.
You interviewed a lot of these women for TUF Talk one-on-one and face-to-face. Were there any trends that stuck out to you? What was intriguing or surprising, maybe, about their experiences to you?
I think one trend was that it was incredibly, and it's not a surprise, but it's an incredibly draining experience. It's an incredibly exhausting experience, not just the fighting part of it, but because they had to train to fight to get into the house, then you're in the house and you're training all the time, you're fighting and you only have a few days to get ready. … You don't always have a lot of time. You have to be mentally on point all the time.
One thing that I did hear from a few of them was just that the whole process is mentally exhausting, physically exhausting, and that it did make it hard sometimes to find the love for the fight game. Granted, social media is a part of their lives, but the concentration of positivity/negativity they would get from being on this season was different. Some women could handle that better than others. The process was very difficult.
And it seems like, at least the way the show presented it once it was edited and everything, there was a lot of drama this season, too, which probably added to that. And a lot of fans kind of feel like the drama was highlighted whereas the fighters' skills were swept under the rug. Is that bad? Do you think that happened, and do you think we kind of undermined the importance of this season as a championship season in favor of some of the cliques and the drama?
You know, I don't know. It's interesting, because people have short memories. We forget the quote-unquote drama the guys have where they're throwing a bed into the pool or getting into a fight or trashing the other guys' rooms. There was a lot of drama; women just have a different kind of reaction to it.
And while they may appear to bicker more, I don’t think it's really that different from some of the things the guys would do. They just expressed it in a different way. I don't think it undermines what the women were doing because we still saw great fights, we saw their training, we know how hard they worked. I think it's the type of thing where that's maybe going to draw some other people in where, listen, reality TV is incredibly popular. The Real Housewives shows are incredibly popular. I don't think it's a crime to highlight some of the drama to let you understand who these people are. At the end of the day too, yes, they're fighters, but their personalities, they are people. You want to have a reason to care about them.
You got invested, you cared. People who complain that, 'Oh, there are too many UFC fights. I can't keep track anymore.' Well, you're going to keep track of these 16 girls. I guarantee it.
And I think when we look at this finalized card, most of the focus is on the title fight, understandably so, but we have two killer fights right below it in my opinion. With Jeremy Stephens and Charles Oliveira, nobody is really talking about it, but it's two proven finishers in a big featherweight bout. How important is this fight for them?
This fight is very important, obviously. We know that Jeremy, when he fought Cub (Swanson), that was a title eliminator. Jeremy came really close, he rocked Cub a few times, he just couldn't pull that trigger and finish that fight, but I think he looked really good. And with Charles Oliveira, he's struggled with his weight sometimes, he said, 'Oh, this time I got sick, I can't fight.' I think it's incredibly important for Jeremy to get back on track, and I think it's incredibly important for Charles to prove his legitimacy in the division and to kind of shed some naysayers.
I think the division is really exciting, and it's the kind of time for featherweights where it's like, 'Hey, we're starting to get some eyeballs on our division, a little bit more than we have in the past. Let me ramp it up now.'
Right before that, we have KJ Noons and Daron Cruickshank—
I love this fight! I do! I've been a KJ fan for a long time. I used to work for Elite XC "back in the day" as they say, and KJ is just a guy who is like 'Ding, ding, slap!' He doesn't wait, he is there to throw down. I like when he has his hair shorter so he doesn't have to push it out of his eyes, he can just keep fighting, but I really admire KJ's fighting style.
And Cruickshank, he's one of those guys, when he was on The Ultimate Fighter, I kind of put an asterisk next to him like, 'I like this guy! I like his kicks. I like what he's doing out there. He's got a little flash.' He, to me, was somebody I really wanted to keep an eye on, so I really am excited about this fight because I think it's going to have a lot of action to it. I think it's going to be explosive.
Someone is going to get knocked out, and I'm looking forward to it! Daron could kick him in the head or KJ could just box him to death and rock him—it's going to be great.
I'd like to end by making a few predictions, and you're going to tell me if I'm right or wrong and why. How's that sound?
Okay!
I think Carla Esparza's pressure and wrestling game is going to be too much for Rose Friday, and she's going to take home the strap. Am I right or wrong?
I think you're wrong.
Why? How is Rose going to combat that?
I think that, well, in the Tecia Torres fight, we saw how incredible Carla's wrestling is and how she can really work that through a fight. Then against Jessica Penne, we saw that Carla can really let her hands go, and I was very pleased with that when I saw her fight Jessica.
That being said, Rose is an unknown entity. Carla may have let her hands go with Jessica more because those two train together all the time. They're very good friends. There's a very deep-seeded comfort level they have with each other where, while it might be difficult to try to beat up your friend, she's actually quite used to beating up her friend. When she goes in against Rose though, that's a completely unknown X-factor...you don't know what Rose is going to throw. She's very unpredictable.
And while she has a four-inch height advantage and two inches of reach, she fights differently than that. She's even lankier than that. I think the perception of Rose as a fighter is that she's even taller and lankier. Those legs can come out of nowhere. She's squirrely, she's crafty.
It's a completely legitimate claim though, on Carla's wrestling, because it is top notch. I have a feeling though, when she takes Rose to the ground, is her wrestling better than Rose's jiu-jitsu? It might be. I don't know yet. We'll see.
Okay, so prediction No. 2: Jessica Penne and Randa Markos are going to steal the show and take home Fight of the Night honors.
You know, it's so funny, because this totally could. But Jessica is so methodical and technical, and Randa is like the bull in a china shop. She's so physical. I think that's going to be a really exciting fight. You know, it could. It definitely could steal Fight of the Night. I think Bec (Rawlings) and Heather (Clark) is going to be a great fight, too, but Jessica and Randa can definitely take Fight of the Night.
So I guess I can agree with that. I can agree with that one.
I also think Jeremy Stephens is taking home a Performance Bonus after he knocks out Charles Oliveira early.
I can get behind that one. He's got ridiculously heavy hands, this coming from a guy I work with, Dominick Cruz, who trains with him and works with him a lot. And you can see it. If you can do that to Cub Swanson that many times, yeah, I think Jeremy can get a KO.
Now for the final prediction, which is the boldest of them all.
Uh-oh!
I think whoever wins tomorrow in the main event will have a short stay at the top, because Claudia Gadelha is coming for it, and she's better than both of them. She's taking the strap.
Oh! You like Claudia? I like Joanna (Jedrzejczyk, Gadelha's UFC on Fox 13 opponent) too, but I agree that the strawweight title might change hands. It'll be hard for somebody to really put together a long reign, because there's a lot of talent.
Who are you taking The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale main event? Is Esparza taking home gold, or will Namajunas begin a lengthy run at the top? Sound off below, and we'll discuss this historic card.
