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 — and wrestling competitions that go back even further — Esparza felt like the time was right to hang up her gloves for good.

“This decision took a lot of thought,” Esparza told MMA Fighting. “I always said that when this sport stopped being fun for me and I lost my passion, that would be the time to hang it up. But that hasn’t happened. I still go to training like hungry to learn. I’m still so passionate about learning and growing in this sport and evolving. It wasn’t that for me. It’s so many things.

“I wish my body was where my mind is at. I think I’ve heard a lot of my teammates say once you hit 30 in the room, you start to feel it, and that’s definitely true. I’ll be turning 37 the week after the fight, so it’s definitely put a lot of years on this car, and the attention it takes to be a parent for me — and everyone does it different but I feel that being a parent is the most selfless thing I’ve ever done, and being a fighter is the most selfish thing I’ve done. The focus is all on me and what do I need to do to be the best and whatever. That’s the No. 1 for me. Now, priorities have just changed a little bit.”

Esparza always intended to have children, but the birth of her son changed her perspective on the future, at least as far as fighting is concerned.

There was also the non-stop pace required to stay active in the UFC — she’d routinely spend months in a training camp, fight, take a little bit of time off, and then start that same cycle anew all over again. That’s a harder schedule to maintain with a baby at home, and for Esparza, it’s important to be present as a parent.

“I’m really enjoying just being home with my son,” Esparza said. “I feel very fortunate to be able to be here for all the little moments and appreciate them. For me, it’s been a cycle of fight, rest, get back to training — it’s kind of been like a cycle, but a little bit different with pregnancy and everything.

“Since we decided to start a family, I’ve been like a year-and-a-half in the making for this fight. I never stopped lifted weights, moving around, running. I was doing my physical therapy because it’s almost this traumatic labor and pregnancy, a big hit on your body. Just like any big injury, just kind of slowly building myself back to being in the best shape and mental place I can whenever I chose to fight again.”

Esparza also understood the wear and tear she puts on her body from training and fighting in MMA would eventually catch up, but that was even more evident after she gave birth.

That also played a deciding factor in the timing for her retirement in October.

“It’s been in the works since even before my last fight,” Esparza explained. “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.

“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.”

Considering she was a champion in her most recent UFC appearance, Esparza never doubted that she could still hang with the best fighters in the world at 115 pounds.

But she also knows the long-running stereotype that fighters just don’t know when to retire — and more often than not, many legends of the sport end up leaving on their backs rather than walking out on their own two feet.

“We’ve seen it time and time again, the sport kind of forces you out,” Esparza said. “You have devastating loss after devastating loss, and honestly, I’ve seen a lot of my heroes fighting over the years and it’s hard to watch that. I never wanted to be that to my fans. We all lose and have bad losses, I’ve been finished and come back. I don’t necessarily think my body’s putting me out to a place where I’m just going to plummet, I’m going downhill. I still think I have a good amount of fight left in me, but just being older and the amount of time it takes to recover and to prepare for each training session and to avoid injury, and it’s a lot.

“I wish I could show up to training and leave, but the amount of commitment that it takes to be at this level and to train smart is a lot. I don’t want to half-ass this sport. If I do it, I want to be all-in and I want to give this sport the attention and the time that it deserves.”

After initially reaching out to inform UFC that she’s ready to book another fight and then informing the promotion about her pending retirement, Esparza appreciated that she’ll get the chance to go out in front of a crowd at UFC 307 rather than appearing at the UFC APEX.

Because she’s already announced that this is her final fight, Esparza plans on leaving everything she has in the cage and then walking away on her own terms.

“I don’t want to get pushed out,” Esparza said. “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.”