Esparza dethrones strawweight champ Namajunes in UFC 274

PHOENIX » Carla Esparza gave herself one heck of a wedding gift Saturday night.

One week before her wedding, Esparza edged strawweight champion Rose Namajunas via split decision in the UFC 274 comain event inside Footprint Center to win back the title she lost more than seven years ago.

The judges scored it 47-48, 4946, 48-47 for the 34-year-old Irvine resident and Redondo Union High graduate.

The Phoenix fans were less than enthusiastic throughout the bout as each fighter showed ample respect for her opponent’s strength, leading to several standoffs and feints and little action.

The shorter Esparza (20-6) stayed outside the range of Namajunas (12-4) while the two-time 115-pound champion was leery of Esparza’s outstanding takedowns and wrestling.

After the first round, each fighter had connected on three strikes. By the end of the fight, Namajunas had outstruck Esparza 30-23, with the advantage coming largely in the final round.

Esparza was credited with two takedowns to one by Namajunas, which came in the final 10 seconds of the fight.

The fight was a rematch of the Season 20 final of the UFC reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” on Dec. 12, 2014, In that fight, Esparza patiently and methodically imposed her will and routinely took Namajunas down en route to a third-round rear-naked choke to become the first 115-pound champion in UFC history.

Esparza lost the title three months later to Joanna Jedrzejczyk and has been on a long quest to reclaim her belt.

Esparza came into the title fight as the No. 2 contender after rattling off five consecutive victories. Namajunas, fresh off a splitdecision win over former champion Weilei Zhang in November, said Esparza was the only fight that made sense, liking weighing merit and revenge.

Namajunas, 29, came into the fight on a three-fight win streak as well as having won six of her last seven.