Vengeance provides Rose Namajunas with further incentive in her latest assignment.
“Thug Rose” will defend her undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s strawweight title against Carla Esparza when their rematch serves as the UFC 274 co-headliner on Saturday at the Footprint Center in Phoenix. Esparza submitted the Trevor Wittman protégé in their first encounter seven-plus years ago. Much has changed since. Namajunas answers the bell on the strength of a three-fight winning streak. She last fought at UFC 268, where she eked out a split decision over Weili Zhang in their Nov. 6 pairing. Esparza, meanwhile, has rattled off five consecutive victories. She last competed on May 22, when she put away Xiaonan Yan with punches in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 188 encounter.
As Namajunas and Esparza march toward their high-stakes confrontation at 115 pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to this point:
29: Years of age for Namajunas, who was born in Milwaukee on June 29, 1992.
5: Namajunas wins by submission, accounting for 45% of her career total (11). Her methods of choice: four rear-naked chokes and one flying armbar. Namajunas holds two other wins by knockout or technical knockout and four more by decision.
300,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Namajunas across her 12 appearances inside the Octagon. She has been awarded “Performance of the Night” on three occasions and “Fight of the Night” on three others.
9: Consecutive calendar years in which Namajunas has fought at least once. She went 2-1 in 2013, 0-1 in 2014, 2-0 in 2015, 1-1 in 2016, 2-0 in 2017, 1-0 in 2018, 0-1 in 2019, 1-0 in 2020 and 2-0 in 2021.
66: Combined victories between the four opponents—Esparza, Jessica Andrade, Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Tecia Torres—who have defeated Namajunas. They sport a cumulative .702 winning percentage (66-28).
34: Years of age for Esparza, who was born on Oct. 10, 1987 in Torrance, California.
4: Esparza victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 22% of her career total (18). Her complete list of victims: Yan, Lynn Alvarez, Sarah Schneider and Cassie Trost. Esparza owns four other victories by submission and 10 more by decision.
42: Takedowns completed by Esparza as a UFC women’s strawweight, placing her first on the promotion’s all-time list at 115 pounds. She ranks ahead of Claudia Gadelha (36), the aforementioned Andrade (23), Tatiana Suarez (22) and Namajunas (18).
52: Rounds completed by Esparza as a professional mixed martial artist. She has gone the distance on 13 different occasions and carries a 10-3 record in those bouts.
.750: Cumulative winning percentage between the six opponents—Suarez, Gadelha, Randa Markos, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Jessica Aguilar and Megumi Fujii—who have beaten Esparza. They boast a combined record of 99-32-1.
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