Carla Esparza explains her decision to retire from MMA: ‘Priorities have just changed a little’

Carla Esparza already had an idea that the end of her career was coming soon — even before she defended her UFC strawweight title against Zhang Weili back in 2022.

The former two-time UFC champion may have announced that her return fight against Tecia Pennington at UFC 307 serves as her final UFC appearance, but retirement was already on her mind long before she took the past two-plus years off to start a family with her husband. With an MMA career that dates back to 2010 ...