Making the case for Namajunas vs. Esparza 2. EDIT: I regret making this thread.

[acannxr]

1. Esparza is on a five fight win streak, she's earned a title shot.
2. Esparza is 1-0 over the current champion.
3. Zhang wasn't a long reigning champion, so the immediate rematch is hardly deserving.
4. Zhang didn't lose in a close decision, she was knocked out.
5. Namajunas fighting a new style matchup is far more interesting and is a good test to see if she has an answer for a wrestling-heavy opponent.

Pros of Namajunas vs. Esparza:​

Marketing-wise, a fight against Esparza has the history of the inaugural Women's Strawweight title rematch built into it, Namajunas has a chance to avenge her loss, and Esparza has a chance to having one of the greatest comeback stories in MMA.

If Namajunas wins, she's avenged her loss and that gives Zhang or another contender enough time to be built up for the next title fight. If Esparza wins, there's suddenly fresh new matchups altogether.

Cons of Namajunas vs. Zhang:​

Marketing-wise, a fight against Zhang feels unearned (on Zhang's part) and repetitive (Namajunas will have fought the same three people in her last six fights), especially since Zhang is coming off a loss.

If Namajunas wins, Zhang is in the same position as Joanna, and the division is suddenly without a contender for years (Joanna only got two subsequent title shots because there was no other big name for the inaugural Flyweight fight and COVID left Zhang without someone to fight), and the China market will take a significant hit (personally I wouldn't care, but it's an unnecessarily risky business move on the UFC's end). If Zhang wins, and this is where it can potentially go from bad to worse: they could possibly book a trilogy fight.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Sad that a case even has to be made. WME’s lust for Chinese money will prevail, I’m afraid

 

[TempleoftheDog]

You don’t have to make the case.

Anybody with a clue has already said Carla should be next. Maybe write an email to the UFC? For all the good it will do you. The UFC doesn’t care about the hardcore opinion. They only care about who buys ppvs, and where they can make the most money.

The answer here is China. Move on, and enjoy the fights.

Or I wish some of you people would actually put your money where your mouths are, and boycott. But, not a single one of you will.

 

[Bubba Kid]

I thought Carla was next?

 

[Reign009]

Lol, you don't have to convince me bro. I personally love the story of having Carla/Rose 2 but UFC loves doing these instant rematches.

 

[OverhandRightKayo]

With all due respect and love @acannxr, you're too apt to be wasting your energy on a fight between Namajunas and Esparza. Esparza is just pretty. Namajunas is a beast. Namajunas needs to rematch the Chinese lady. That's her biggest challenge.

 

[Ares Black]

Esparza pretty clearly deserves the next shot, but I expect the UFC to make Zhang-Namajunas 2.

 

[MMAProfessional]

1. Esparza is on a five fight win streak, she's earned a title shot.
2. Esparza is 1-0 over the current champion.
3. Zhang wasn't a long reigning champion, so the immediate rematch is hardly deserving.
4. Zhang didn't lose in a close decision, she was knocked out.
5. Namajunas fighting a new style matchup is far more interesting and is a good test to see if she has an answer for a wrestling-heavy opponent.

Pros of Namajunas vs. Esparza:​

Marketing-wise, a fight against Esparza has the history of the inaugural Women's Strawweight title rematch built into it, Namajunas has a chance to avenge her loss, and Esparza has a chance to having one of the greatest comeback stories in MMA.

If Namajunas wins, she's avenged her loss and that gives Zhang or another contender enough time to be built up for the next title fight. If Esparza wins, there's suddenly fresh new matchups altogether.

Cons of Namajunas vs. Zhang:​

Marketing-wise, a fight against Zhang feels unearned (on Zhang's part) and repetitive (Namajunas will have fought the same three people in her last six fights), especially since Zhang is coming off a loss.

If Namajunas wins, Zhang is in the same position as Joanna, and the division is suddenly without a contender for years (Joanna only got two subsequent title shots because there was no other big name for the inaugural Flyweight fight and COVID left Zhang without someone to fight), and the China market will take a significant hit (personally I wouldn't care, but it's an unnecessarily risky business move on the UFC's end). If Zhang wins, and this is where it can potentially go from bad to worse: they could possibly book a trilogy fight.

Ain't gonna happen even though it makes all the sense in the world. She is on a streak against very good competition and there is also history. Dana has already said Weili is next though so it doesn't matter.

 

[Jose Beehive]

Yeah fully agree, it's not the fight i'd rather see but it makes a lot more sense.

 

[Tapatio]

Uncle Dana will throw Carla 10K step aside money. Anything more would bankrupt the UFC for sure.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Fully agree. It should be Rose vs Carla

Enough immediate title shot rematches for anyone that hasn't had an Anderson Silva level run

 

[blaseblah]

The rematch doesn't make sense on any level. If Rose wins you just made a top contender irrelevant to the title picture. If Zhang wins you force another immediate rematch and Esparza gets further screwed. How has the UFC not learned by now?

 

[sfer1]

If Namajunas wins, she's avenged her loss and that gives Zhang or another contender enough time to be built up for the next title fight.

If Rose wins, she also becomes the first strawweight to beat all the other champions.​

While I agree Carla should be next because she deserves it more and there's a built-in story, I don't think Namajunas vs Esparza 2 would be competitive at all. Rose has improved a lot more than Carla since they fought back in 2014. The reason the same people have been fighting each other is that the rest aren't on the same level.

Besides, Rose has been back in training for quite a while now, but Carla was on vacation until a few days ago. If she really wanted the title shot, she should have been training hard, ready and more vocal about it.

 

[15089371]

The Zhang fight is happening? That sucks, Esparza really deserves it right now, and who better than a girl she has beaten before.

 

[drbolony]

Yeah this thread shouldn't even be a thing. What's the point of the rankings anyway? It seems like win streaks were rewarded more before their inception.

 

[BangBang]

 

[laleggenda27]

All due respect, TS, but this thread is completely unnecessary. It's obvious that Esparza should get the next title shot, for all the reasons you laid out (which we already know). More fundamentally, a former champion who got definitely finished by the current champion should never get an immediate rematch. And Weili doesn't have the "long-reigning champion" argument to even justify such talk.

But Weili will probably get the rematch because:

 

[Madeline Chelsea]

I’m so sick of immediate championship rematches, especially when the champ was finished or it was one sided. Let the new champ fight someone else and the old champ fight at least 1 fight before getting another shot.

The only exception should be if there was some sort of controversial decision or odd instance like Yan vs Aljo.

 

[Dreyga_King of Sherbums]

Or I wish some of you people would actually put your money where your mouths are, and boycott. But, not a single one of you will.

I mean Sherbrooke already steal PPVs. What more do you want?

 

[Better Every Day]

I have no problems with agreeing that Carla deserves the fight.

But I think that the factors being considered by the UFC don't only involve Rose, Weili, and Carla. I think that the factors also involve the fact that Chinese fighters recently lost many fights. Yan Xiaonan lost her most recent fight (to Carla Esparza, actually), and I think if that hadn't happened, there would be less of a push for the Rose/Weili re-match, because Yan Xiaonan would be a title-contender and able to keep the new Chinese audience engaged. To add to the grief of the new Chinese audience, many male fighters trained in the China UFC Institute recently lost their fights as well. I think the UFC feels that they need to give the new Chinese audience, who aren't paying in an event-by-event manner but rather by an annual subscription, a reason to want to re-subscribe. If many of those subscribed at present don't renew at their next opportunity, I think that the UFC fears losing a large part of the Chinese market for quite a long time, if not permanently.