Carla Kristen Esparza[4] (born October 10, 1987) is an American former professional mixed martial artist and wrestler who most recently competed in the women's Strawweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), in which she is the former two-time UFC Women's Strawweight Champion.

[5][6] She first earned the UFC championship by winning a 16-woman tournament that was televised on the reality series The Ultimate Fighter.

[7] After winning multiple regional and national high-school wrestling tournaments, Esparza was awarded a scholarship to Menlo College, a NAIA Division school in northern California, to wrestle under coach and former two-time Olympian Lee Allen.

She then expanded her mixed martial arts repertoire when she began training at Team Oyama during the summer of her junior year of college.

[9] In August 2010, only six months after her pro debut and with just three professional MMA fights, Esparza was called in by Bellator MMA as a last-minute replacement for Angela Magaña, who was forced to withdraw from her upcoming fight due to a foot injury.

On just three days' notice, Esparza's opponent in the quarterfinal round was the undefeated and then #1 pound-for-pound female MMA fighter in the world, Megumi Fujii.

[18] Three months later, Esparza was scheduled to face Angela Magana at Pandemonium VI for the MEZ Sports women's flyweight title.

[19][20] Unfortunately, Magana was involved in a car accident on the day of the fight while in transit to the Riverside Convention Center, where the event was being staged.

[22] In May 2012, it was announced that Esparza had signed with the upstart all-female Invicta Fighting Championships promotion.

[29] Esparza ultimately faced Bec Hyatt for the Invicta FC Strawweight Championship.

[31][32] Esparza agreed to defend her title against Ayaka Hamasaki at Invicta FC 6: Coenen vs. Cyborg on July 13, 2013.

[35] On December 7, 2013, Esparza was set to defend her strawweight title against Cláudia Gadelha at Invicta FC 7.

[40] By winning the tournament on The Ultimate Fighter, Esparza advanced to the final on December 12, 2014, against Rose Namajunas.

After dominating much of the fight with her grappling and ground strikes, Esparza defeated Namajunas via rear-naked choke in the third round to become the inaugural UFC Strawweight Champion.

[41] Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports noted, "Namajunas tapped at 1:26 of the third round, but the fight was over long before that.

[6] Following the fight, Brad Walker of MMATorch declared, "Esparza is the best fighter in her division in the world, not just in the UFC.

Esparza, who stepped in for Jessica Aguilar, noted, "I took this fight semi-last minute, and I kind of wanted it that way too.

"[46] Esparza next faced Randa Markos on February 19, 2017 at UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Browne.

[55] Esparza was scheduled to face Lívia Renata Souza on April 27, 2019 at UFC Fight Night: Jacaré vs.

[56] However, it was reported that Souza pulled out of the bout, citing ankle injury and was replaced by promotional newcomer Virna Jandiroba.

[61] Esparza was scheduled to face Michelle Waterson on April 11, 2020 at UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs.

[76] Esparza won a largely uneventful fight by split decision to claim the UFC Women's Strawweight Championship for a second time.

[77] With the victory, Esparza set a record for longest time between UFC title reigns by any fighter, male or female, at 2,612 days.