Carla Esparza (10-2) gör sitt första försvar av sin stråviktstitel mot Joanna Jedrzejczyk (8-0) på UFC 185 och hon vet att polskan har mycket krut i nävarna.
Esparza vann titeln genom att besegra Rose Namajunas (2-2) på finalen av TUF-20 och Jedrzejczyk vann sin titelchans genom att besegra Claudia Gadelha dagen efter Esparzas vinst. Dagen efter att Jedrzejczyk vann så fick Esparza reda på att polskan skylle bli hennes nästa utmanare.
”When I heard about Joanna, I actually heard about it the next day because she literally fought Claudia the day after I fought,” sa Esparza. “So, it was already in my head that that was going to be my next fight. So I was just like, ‘Alright, I don’t want to think too much about her.’ But, I knew that she had great takedown defense, she has great striking. I mean, she knocked down Claudia in the first round and I’ve seen her knock down some other people. So, she’s definitely someone I feel could knock me out and I definitely want to impose my will in this fight and take it where I want it to go.”
Esparza vet att hon nog kommer vara en ganska aktiv ufc-mästare, men förklarar att hon som mest kan försvara sin titel två eller tre gånger per år.
“I would defend my title two, at most three times a year,” sa Esparza. “Two because each camp for me isn’t just a straight six-to-eight week camp where it’s ‘OK, just start training.’ I like to have a couple months to just train without that pressure on me.”
“It’s not like I don’t want to be training. I want to be training, I want to be growing, I want to be trying different things, training in the gi. When I’m getting ready for a fight, it’s more about focusing on someone specific and a specific gameplan.”
