Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Carla Esparza vs Marina Rodriguez

Here's the match video of Carla Esparza vs Marina Rodriguez from last night's UFC show in Abu Dhabi. This is a significant fight in the Strawweight division with both fighters ranked and looking to get into the title picture. Carla is on a three fight winning streak. Marina is undefeated in four UFC fights but two of them were draws. I don't think Marina does enough to win fights. And she doesn't do enough in this fight. Except Carla almost hands her this fight on a silver platter. She was lucky to escape with a split decision win. Carla got a takedown in round one. But she was in closed guard and she wasn't able to advance her position. Marina not only defended well but she scored from the bottom with elbows and Carla was cut over the eye. At the end of the round, Marina reversed her position and landed more shots from the top. My criteria is if a fighter gets a takedown, she needs to advance her position. Carla didn't do that and Marina caused significant damage from the bottom. So I scored the round 10-9 for Marina. One judge scored it that way and the other two scored it 10-9 for Carla. Round two was very similar and I scored it 10-9 for Marina. Two of the judges scored it the same and the third scored it 10-9 for Carla. Carla's coach Colin Oyama yelled at her between rounds. So she was a lot better in round three. That round was 10-9 for Carla. So I scored the fight 29-28 for Marina. One judge scored it 29-28 for Marina. The second judge scored it 29-28 for Carla. And the third scored it 30-27 for Carla which is a ridiculous score. So Carla won by split decision. I thought she fought a very stupid fight and didn't deserve to win. Afterwards, of course Carla called out Claudia Gadelha. They have a long standing beef going back to their Invicta days. I don't think Claudia wants to fight her. Claudia has a fight coming up vs Yan Xiaonan. Yan could win that fight and she could beat Carla too. And Amanda Ribas called out Carla a couple of weeks ago. I expect Carla to avoid that fight if she can. Check out the fight video and tell me what you think.