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Andreas Hale, ESPN
The UFC’s first women’s strawweight champion is calling it a career.
Following a unanimous decision loss to Tecia Pennington at UFC 307 on Saturday, Carla Esparza retired from mixed martial arts, saying she wants to focus on her family.
It was a close fight with a bittersweet ending that many fans at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City believed Esparza won. However, Pennington’s success in the standup, led by a leg kick attack, earned her scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27.
“Can’t leave it to the judges,” Esparza said following the loss. “I thought I won it, but I’m honored to go out fighting a veteran.”
A video package of Esparza’s career was shown in the arena as she held her son in the Octagon.
“It’s been an amazing journey the last 15 years,” a tearful Esparza said. “I’ve fought the best of the best. It’s not always easy. There are ups and downs in this sport but I wouldn’t have done it any other way. This is the greatest sport in the world.”
The retirement did not come as a shocker — Esparza (19-7 MMA, 10-5 UFC) announced in August on Instagram that her MMA career would end with the fight against Pennington.
“I’ve actually felt better and better about my decision as we go,” Esparza told ESPN earlier in the week if she had reconsidered.
“Being a mom and fighting is definitely possible but for me, I feel like I’m in a place to take this next chapter and give all that passion and focus to being a mother.”
Nicknamed “Cookie Monster,” Esparza, 36, retires as a two-time UFC women’s strawweight champion, a former Invicta FC strawweight champion and winner of Season 20 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Known for her exceptional wrestling ability, Esparza holds the record for most takedowns landed in strawweight history with 44.
Before transitioning to an MMA career, Esparza was an NAIA All-American in women’s wrestling at Menlo College in Atherton, California, in 2008 and 2009. Esparza made her professional MMA debut in 2010 and went 3-0 before getting the call to compete in Bellator against legendary mixed martial artist Megumi Fujii, where she suffered her first career loss. In 2012, she made her debut in Invicta FC and won the title a year later as the inaugural Invicta FC strawweight champion. She vacated the title to compete on “The Ultimate Fighter,” where the winner would be crowned the inaugural UFC women’s strawweight champion.
After beating Angela Hill, Pennington (then Torres) and Jessica Penne, Esparza would dominate and submit Rose Namajunas in December 2014 to make history as the first women’s champion at 115 pounds. However, her tenure as champion was short-lived, as she dropped the title to Joanna Jedrzejczyk three months later.
Following the loss, Esparza went 9-3 over the next seven years before she was awarded a shot to regain the title against then-champion Namajunas. Although she was a betting underdog, Esparza pulled off a split decision victory to reclaim the title on May 7, 2022, setting the record for the longest time between title reigns in UFC history at 2,612 days.
Esparza dropped the title to Zhang Weili six months later.
After losing the title, Esparza took a hiatus from the sport to start a family. In September 2023, Esparza and her husband welcomed a baby boy to the world. With nearly 15 years as a professional, the former champion decided to have one last fight before bidding the sport farewell.
“This felt like everything coming full circle,” Esparza said of concluding her career against someone she shared time with on “The Ultimate Fighter.” “We’re now both mothers, and this shows how far women in MMA have come. Being a mom is starting to be a common thing in MMA. You don’t have to stop fighting once you become a mother, but it was my choice to retire. Women can do anything.”
Esparza leaves the sport as one of the pioneers of women’s MMA and will likely be enshrined in the UFC Hall of Fame.
“Fighting has made all of my dreams come true,” she said. “It set me up in life and gave me a lifestyle I never thought I could have. I literally got to do what I love every single day and make a living off of it. I couldn’t be more grateful for what this sport has given me. It has been my everything.”