Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs Carla Esparza

Here's the match video of Carla Esparza defending her UFC Women's Strawweight Championship against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. A lot of fans seemed to favour Carla in this fight because of her superior wrestling. I wasn't so sure because we saw Joanna beat Claudia Gadelha, a BJJ black belt who some believe is the best fighter in the division, with takedown defense and striking. I thought it might go all five rounds. The big question was could Carla take Joanna down and keep her down. And what if she couldn't keep her down. That's the story of the fight. Because if Joanna pounds away at will, the fight would not last long. Before the fight, Joanna tried to get into Carla's head with trash talk and by giving her a cookie at the weigh ins. Though Carla admitted that no opponent had ever talked to her like this, she claimed it didn't bother her. I dunno about that. This fight reminded me of Carla's fight vs Tecia Torres on TUF. Carla got hung up with repeated unsuccessful takedown attempts. She was able to win that fight because Tecia didn't generate much offense herself. Joanna is a lot more experienced than Tecia and she punches a lot harder. Did Carla underestimate Joanna? In the first round, Joanna didn't come out throwing bombs. Carla immediately went for a takedown. It got stuffed. She kept trying for takedowns mostly unsuccessfully. I think one takedown was successful and Joanna got up immediately. That takes a lot of energy. So by the end of round one, Carla was out of gas and Joanna started to pound her. And that shows you how well trained and disciplined Joanna is. The one thing I didn't expect was for Carla to gas that quickly. The other thing is that a fighter needs a plan B in case plan A doesn't work out. In round two, it was clear that Carla had no plan B. She kept trying for unsuccessful takedowns. The more she did that, Joanna became more confident and aggressive. And her punches are hard and accurate. Once she started teeing off on Carla, it was just a matter of time. Carla couldn't continue to stand there and take shots. The fight was stopped with about a minute left in round two. Congratulations Joanna Jedrzejczyk or Joanna Champion as she said we could call her that after she wins. She is the new UFC Women's Strawweight Champion. So what's next? Well, the UFC Poland show is next month and Claudia Gadelha and Joanne Calderwood are both fighting on that show. But they aren't fighting each other. I think if she wins, Joanne gets the title shot on this summer's UFC show in Glasgow, Scotland. That fight would be a huge draw. Check out the video! I have included the pre-fight stuff.