Rose Namajunas on UFC 274 loss to Carla Esparza: ‘I thought I won’

Rose Namajunas on UFC 274 loss to Carla Esparza: ‘I thought I won’ | Video

Rose Namajunas lost her women’s strawweight title in the UFC 274 co-main event rematch against former champion Carla Esparza on Saturday.

The fight was largely uneventful. Spectators inside the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Ariz. could be heard booing during the pay-per-view broadcast. The bout was difficult to score because so little occurred, especially in the first three rounds.

The judges scored the fight for Esparza by split decision giving her two title-fight wins over Namajunas. It was the first time Namajunas had lost a rematch in her career, but she believes that she should have been declared the winner.

“I felt like as if I landed the more shots. I even took her down. None of her takedowns were significant, or any control time. She hit me with, I’d say, one good punch,” Namajunas said during the UFC 274 Post-fight Press Conference following the event.

“I felt like I did the damage. I controlled the fight,” Namajunas said. “I stuck to the strategy, and she didn’t really have any offense. She was whiffing at air the whole time. I thought I won.”

UFC 274 Official Scorecard: Rose Namajunas vs. Carla Esparza

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