There is one woman in the UFC strawweight division that irks the nerves of Carla Esparza more than any other. It is not her opponent this Saturday at UFC 225, Claudia Gadelha, but an old foe she faced in her infancy stage in the sport back in 2011, one Jessica Aguilar:
“Honestly, I’m not a trash talker, but that is the only girl in the division that I have nothing good to say about.”
When asked by Karyn Bryant to elaborate on what is the source of this animus, Esparza cited what she perceives as cowardice and disingenuity:
“She’s just chicken shit. I remember I was in another country for an extended trip and she’s like, oh, I’ll fight you right now! And from Invicta when Claudia wasn’t able to fight me, the day after weigh-ins, she was actually at Invicta and she was like, oh, I’ll step in and fight you. Let me just get permission from World Series of Fighting.
“They were like, Jessica never even called us. Never even contacted us.
“Right after my shoulder surgery, she called me out. It’s like, girl, you know I’m gonna be out for like six months.”
With all these close calls or prank calls, as it were, and with both fighters seemingly being open to fight and even being originally scheduled within one week of one another this month, Esparza has an answer to the hovering question of why the two strawweights have not clashed in the UFC:
“She’s always been ducking me and ducking me. And then the day after I won the UFC championship, she kind of made a catty post like, ‘Congrats to the girls in the division. And don’t forget who’s still number one.’ I’m just like, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ I don’t know; I just don’t like her.”
Maybe someday Esparza and Aguilar will finally be able to settle their differences in the Octagon, but it won’t be this Saturday. Instead, the former strawweight champion will be met with the tall challenge of facing one of the toughest fighters in the division, the #3 ranked and former title challenger Claudia Gadelha.
Who do you believe wins this Saturday? Carla Esparza or Claudia Gadelha?
