UFC champion Rose Namajunas eyeing 'logical' rematch with Carla Esparza

Rose Namajunas defended her UFC strawweight title Saturday night against Zhang Weili via a unanimous decision and wasted no time lining up another contender in her crosshairs. 

"[Carla Esparza] was on my mind before going into this one,” Namajunas told reporters at her post-fight press conference. “That seems sort of like the logical step, but I’ve got to see what the UFC is thinking I guess. But yeah, I would love to fight Carla.”

Esparza, 34, defeated Namajunas with a third-round submission in the UFC's first strawweight championship fight back in 2014. Esparza lost the belt in her next fight against Joanna Jedrzejczyk and went 3-3 in her next six after that. She has surged back into the title picture with a five-fight win streak and sits behind only Namajunas and Weili in the division rankings.

Namajunas, 29, is no stranger to rematches. She already avenged two of her four career losses by defeating Tecia Torres and Jessica Andrade in rematches. Namajunas also beat both Weili and Jedrzejczyk twice each.

Esparza and Namajunas both competed on season 20 of "The Ultimate Fighter," which featured a 16-woman tournament to crown the UFC's first strawweight champion. Esparza was the top-seeded competitor, and Namajunas advanced to the final despite entering the tournament as the seventh seed.