"People can have traumatic experiences" - Carla Esparza explains decision to retire from MMA after UFC 307
Carla Esparza recently opened up about her decision to hang up her gloves following UFC 307. Esparza detailed that since her body had changed after becoming pregnant, she felt it was only fitting to declare retirement following one more fight.
Esparza is set to face Tecia Pennington in a women's strawweight bout at UFC 307 on Oct. 5. However, earlier this month, the former two-time UFC strawweight champion took to social media and announced that her bout against Pennington will mark her final appearance in the octagon.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Esparza explained her decision to retire from MMA, saying:
''It’s been in the works since even before my last fight. I knew that potentially my last fight could have been my last fight ever. I really wanted to come back, but there’s a lot of stuff that happens with women’s bodies and pregnancy and labor, and people can have traumatic experiences to their bodies.''
Esparza continued:
''So I didn’t know what the future held, but I had to be mentally in a place to let it go if I had to. I knew I wanted to take one or two more fights, and it turns out with actually being in the mix and seeing everything, I’m feeling like this last fight makes the most sense for me just to do one more.''
Check out Carla Esparza's comments below (via MMA Fighting on X):
In her last octagon outing at UFC 281 in Nov. 2022, Esparza defended her strawweight title against Zhang Weili, having previously won it against Rose Namajunas at UFC 274 earlier that year. Weili put up a dominant performance and submitted 'Cookie Monster' via rear-naked choke in the second round.
Carla Esparza wants to retire while still at the top of her game
Carla Esparza recently explained her decision to retire, having said earlier this month that she would do so after her fight against Tecia Pennington at UFC 307.
In the aforementioned interview, Esparza stated that she prefers to retire on her terms rather than having an injury force her out of the sport.
''I don’t want to get pushed out. This is a natural progression. Nobody can stay on top forever, but it is nice to go out on my own terms and not be forced out by injury after injury or just a bad performance. I didn’t want to go out like that. I wanted to go out still as seen as one of the top fighters.” [H/t: MMA Fighting]