Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Carla Esparza vs Rose Namajunas

Here's the fight video of Carla Esparza vs Rose Namajunas from the TUF 20 Finale in Las Vegas. The thing to keep in mind is those semi finals we saw on Wednesday actually happened four months ago. Carla had to know that she wasn't that impressive in the TUF fights compared to Rose. I thought Rose could win early in the fight but could she pace herself for five rounds? But I changed my mind after they came to the cage. I didn't like Rose's body language or her nervous energy. And Carla was very calm. So Rose came out gangbusters in round one. I thought she won the round marginally. But she seemed to run out of gas by the end of the round. Carla got takedowns but Rose defended well. Between rounds, Rose's trainer Trevor Wittman told her to pace herself better. But it was probably too late for that. Carla took over in round two and could have finished Rose with more time. The first minute of round three was a foregone conclusion. Carla took Rose down and won with a rear naked choke. Carla Esparza is the inaugural UFC Women's Strawweight Champion. So what was the difference? She fought like a champ last night. She didn't do that in the TUF fights. Maybe the TUF drama got into her head. Carla's first challenger will be the winner of Claudia Gadelha vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk on tonight's UFC show. That should be a good one. I won't post the videos of the other fights because it takes too long to upload them to the blog. But I'll give a quick analysis of each fight. Jessica Penne vs Randa Markos was probably the best fight of the night. I thought they split the first two rounds and Jessica won round three. So I scored it 29-28 for Jessica. The judges gave her the win by split decision. Felice Herrig won over Lisa Ellis by second round armbar. Felice was bigger and quicker than Lisa. I also think she's better when she is working with her usual coach Jeff Curran. The TUF house didn't do her any favours. Heather Jo Clark won over Bec Rawlings by unanimous decision. I thought they split rounds two and three. Round one was very close. I scored it for Heather but it could have gone the other way. Heather will have knee surgery this week and we'll probably see her in about a year. Joanne Calderwood beat Ham Seo Hee by unanimous decision. That's the Joanne we saw in Invicta. She admitted that TUF was not to her liking. I guess she likes to eat her mom's food and work with her usual trainer John Kavanaugh. Ham did OK. She stayed in the pocket and banged. But I have never thought that she is an elite fighter anyway. Ham is an elite kickboxer. Tecia Torres beat Angela Magana by unanimous decision. Tecia did her thing and Angela had nothing for her. She will have to do more to stick in the UFC. Aisling Daly beat Alex Chambers by first round armbar. And in the opener, Angela Hill beat Emily Peters Kagan by unanimous decision. It was dominant and maybe should have been stopped during round two. Neither Emily or Alex would be in the UFC under normal circumstances. I'm not sure how long they will stick around. Enjoy the video!