5 biggest winners from UFC 274: Charles Oliveira vs. Justin Gaethje
With two title bouts, as well as an insane-sounding lightweight tilt between Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler on tap, UFC 274 looked like a potentially classic show. In the end, it delivered in spades.
UFC 274 saw some huge wins from a number of fighters, including one title victory. It’s likely that its results will be felt for a lengthy time going forward.
With a number of fighters picking up huge victories to advance their places in their various weight classes, the event featured many big winners. However, some stand out more than the others.
Here are the five biggest winners from UFC 274: Charles Oliveira vs. Justin Gaethje.
#5. Carla Esparza – defeated Rose Namajunas to win the UFC strawweight title
Usually, any fighter winning a UFC title would sit near the top of a list like this. Despite Carla Esparza reclaiming the strawweight crown that she lost to Joanna Jedrzejczyk over seven years ago, the way in which she did it means it’s hard to rank her that highly here.
‘The Cookie Monster’ unseated Rose Namajunas, but to say that the fight was disappointing would be an understatement. In fact, there’s probably an argument that it belongs amongst the worst title bouts in the promotion’s history, alongside awful fights like Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson and Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski.
Essentially, Namajunas looked thoroughly gunshy and didn’t seem willing to engage with Esparza at all. While ‘The Cookie Monster’ didn’t actually do that much more in her own right, she at least landed a couple of takedowns, which likely won her the bout and title.
Quite where Esparza goes from here is anyone’s guess. Despite there being a number of possible challengers for her, there’s probably an argument that ‘Thug Rose’ deserves an immediate rematch. Due to the nature of this fight, though, it feels unlikely that the promotion will go down that route.
Either way, ‘The Cookie Monster’ is now a champion again. While the bout was terrible, you can’t take her title win away from her which makes her one of last night’s big winners.