Carla Esparza wanted the storybook ending.
Ahead of her return at UFC 307, the two-time strawweight champion announced her retirement with plans to call it a career after facing Tecia Pennington in October. Despite her best efforts, Esparza ended up on the wrong end of a controversial decision loss but despite the result, she remains steadfast in her decision to stop fighting.
“It’s just hard,” Esparza told MMA Fighting. “Even if I won in the first round via finish or lost a controversial decision, it’s hard to not want to go back no matter what the outcome was. I love fighting.
“But that’s the last one for me regardless. I’m just glad I went out on a good note. It would have been much sweeter to go out with my hand raised but I’d say I’m good with how I left things.”
In the moment, Esparza was overwhelmed with emotions, especially after she was joined in the octagon by her son, who played a huge part in her decision to hang up her gloves for good.
It was only after returning home and rewatching the fight that Esparza felt like the judges definitely took a win away from her that night.
“I think I’m kind of the same opinion of pretty much everyone else. I thought I won the fight,” Esparza said. “Right after the fight, I don’t like to say one way or the other because it’s hard. It just goes so fast when you’re in there. I wanted to make sure I gave it a watch before I gave my opinion of the loss.
“I feel kind of the same as everyone else did I guess. I thought I won it. Then when I heard that 30-27, I thought it was in the bag. I was pretty shocked at that.”
The 30-27 scorecard for Torres definitely earned more than a few confused looks at the judges handing down the decision but there’s not much Esparza can do about it now.
The crowd in Utah definitely voiced a loud opinion afterwards with Pennington receiving a loud chorus of boos as she spoke about her performance, which ended a two-fight skid following a pair of split decision losses. As much as she wanted to win, Esparza admits it was tough to see Pennington face such hostility from the fans.
“At the end of the day, both fighters are going to give it their all and put their heart out there,” Esparza said. “You can’t control what the judges do. That has nothing to do with you as a fighter. That’s always a bummer to see another fighter deal with that but you just kind of wish the judges would have made the correct call and not put people in that position to begin with.”
Following the conclusion of the fight, Esparza received a fitting tribute from the UFC with a video package put together to celebrate her entire career. The 37-year-old veteran reveals she had no idea that was actually going to happen so her emotional reaction was absolutely authentic.
“I had seen them do it for a few people in the past,” Esparza said. “I thought it would have been really cool but I didn’t necessarily expect it. It caught me off guard a little bit when I saw it.
“I’m not a big crier, I’ve had friends that I’ve known for 10 or 15 years that have never seen me cry. I feel the water coming. I’m like oh my gosh, it sunk in.”
Because of the result she received in the fight, Esparza certainly wouldn’t be the first fighter to walk back her retirement and announce plans to compete again.
As much as winning mattered, Esparza says she’s living up to her promise and the fight at UFC 306 will serve as the final appearance of her career.
“I would say in a normal circumstance if I wasn’t retiring, I’d be like I’ve got to go back to the drawing board, I’ve got so much work to do!” Esparza said. “Rematch or whatever! My mind was set no matter what happened. I still feel good about it. That would have been the one cherry on top of the sundae, the same situation but had my hand raised.
“But what can you do? I’m at peace with it. I think that’s it for me. Maybe a jiu-jitsu match, a super fight is in my future for fun. As far as MMA goes, I think that’s it.”
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