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#4. Carla Esparza regains the UFC strawweight championship
There was a lot of criticism for the UFC strawweight championship bout between Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza. Both women seemed hesitant to engage and the outcome was decided by the judges.
Esparza was awarded a split decision win and regained the strawweight championship. This is her second title reign as she previously won the title by also defeating Namajunas in 2014. Both fighters have made significant improvements since their first encounter, especially ‘Thug Rose’, which made the rematch intriguing. It unfortunately didn’t live up to expectations and wasn't a fight that fans wanted to see again.
In the brief exchanges, ‘Cookie Monster’ was able to take Namajunas down, but couldn’t gain much control on the ground. ‘Thug Rose’ landed a few combinations as well, but wasn’t aggressive enough to sway the judges’ decision. Dana White mentioned that the winner of the rematch between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Zhang Weili will get the next title shot.
#3. UFC announce bouts for International Fight Week event
There is a lot to look forward to for fans as the UFC 276 card was made official on the broadcast. The promotion usually delivers for their annual International Fight Week and this year is no different.
Reigning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will defend his title against Jared Cannonier in the main event. This is a highly anticipated bout as it’s not a rematch like Adesanya’s recent title defenses. Cannonier has looked great in his recent bouts and is coming off a knockout win over Derek Brunson. ‘The Killa Gorilla’ called for a title shot during his post-fight interview and the champion agreed that he was deserving.
The co-main event is the long-awaited trilogy between current featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski and former featherweight champion Max Holloway. The two were originally scheduled to compete in April, but ‘Blessed’ was forced to withdraw due to an injury. Other notable bouts on the event include Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira and Sean O’Malley vs. Pedro Munhoz.
