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#4. A win over Carla Esparza would mean Rose Namajunas has avenged practically all of her losses
Very few fighters in UFC history, even all-time greats like B.J. Penn and Randy Couture, were able to avenge all of their career losses before stepping away from the game. The fact that former welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre was able to do so is a major reason why he’s considered the UFC’s GOAT, period.
Incredibly, though, if Rose Namajunas can defeat Carla Esparza this weekend, then she’ll have practically done just that already, with only one other unavenged defeat remaining on her record.
When ‘Thug Rose’ joined the UFC in 2014, she had one career loss to her name – against Tecia Torres – and quickly suffered another at the hands of Esparza in their inaugural title bout.
It didn’t take long for Namajunas to avenge her defeat to Torres, though, as she outpointed ‘The Tiny Tornado’ in her fourth trip to the octagon in April 2016.
Since then, only two other women have beaten ‘Thug Rose’, Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Jessica Andrade. ‘Thug Rose’ has already defeated Andrade in a rematch and while she’s unlikely to fight Kowalkiewicz again anytime soon due to the Polish fighter’s slide down the rankings, that loss came via a semi-controversial decision anyway.
Therefore, if Namajunas can defeat ‘Cookie Monster’ this weekend, then she’ll have avenged three of her four losses, defeating all of the women who were able to finish her off.
Even if she never gets a chance to avenge her loss to Kowalkiewicz, this would be enough for her to be considered the UFC’s strawweight GOAT.
#3. Rose Namajunas has wins over three former champions, and Esparza would be the fourth
An excellent method of considering how great a UFC fighter is or was can be to look at how many champions they defeated during their career with the promotion. Jon Jones, for instance, holds victories over seven former or current UFC champions, making him a clear all-time great.
Things are a little trickier in the strawweight division, of course, because the weight class was only introduced into the UFC in late 2014 following the 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Since then, the division has seen a total of six different title reigns, with five different women holding the title. Somehow, though, Rose Namajunas has already beaten three of those titleholders, and a win over Carla Esparza this weekend would give her a win over a fourth.
Incredibly, too, largely due to the UFC’s love of booking rematches, ‘Thug Rose’ has beaten two of those titleholders, Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Weili Zhang, on two occasions, clearly marking her out as the best strawweight champion to date.
Given that ‘Thug Rose’ is herself the fifth titleholder, it’s hard not to consider her the GOAT in the weight class. After all, who else can compete with her list of wins?
