Champion boxers Seniesa Estrada and Marlen Esparza fight in separate bouts on Dec. 18. They battled once before and could meet again.
Seniesa Estrada and Marlen Esparza are both incredible fighters and champions. They’re each defending titles in separate bouts on Dec. 18 on the undercard of Gilberto Ramirez vs. Yunieski Gonzalez, but their action-packed meeting in 2019 makes a rematch highly desirable to boxing fans.
Estrada vs. Esparza was a dramatic contest. They threw caution to the wind and tried to wreck each other with every punch. A clash of heads opened up a nasty gut in the middle of Esparza’s forehead, and it opened up even more as the fight progressed.
Esparza battled many rounds with one of the nastiest cuts you’ll see in a boxing match. She fought like the champion she is with blood pouring down her face, but Estrada was wearing her down. Esparza couldn’t see, and the fight was stopped before the start of the 10th, giving Estrada the technical decision victory and the interim WBA flyweight title.
There’s been bad blood between the two ever since.
Estrada and Esparza will both be at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX, but they’ve each got big fights to win. Estrada defends her WBA minimumweight title against Maria Santizo, and Marlen Esparza defends her WBC flyweight title against Anabel Ortiz.
Those aren’t walkovers for either fighter, but interestingly, they’re appearing on the same card. Talks of a rematch have floated around for a while.
“When we do have a rematch, I think it’ll be great for women’s boxing, great for boxing in general,” Estrada told FanSided. “I know she gets upset because there’s still that, you know, bitterness there and jealousy there because I beat her.”
Rivals Seniesa Estrada and Marlen Esparza appear on the Dec. 18 undercard of Gilberto Ramirez vs. Yunieski Gonzalez on Dec. 18 on DAZN at 9 p.m ET
Estrada’s words make it seem like a forgone conclusion that the two will fight again. It’s just a matter of when.
Esparza was ringside at Estrada’s last fight when she defeated Tenkai Tsunami and Estrada told her they could get a rematch in the parking lot. According to Esparza, her business with Estrada is separate from her desire to unify the flyweight title.
“I look at it in two different ways. I think there’s the boxing aspect and then the pride and the ego and all other stuff that comes in the fun. The entertainment idea of the sport,” Esparza told FanSided. “So, boxing-wise, I need my belts, and I need to solidify that I’m the best. And then with Seniesa, I think it’s really just, it’s a grudge match. It’s a ego thing.
“And that’s really not within the boundaries of boxing. It’s not about weight class. There is not a belt. We can make our own belt. I see them as two different situations, and it’s not one before the other, but boxing’s first, and we’ll come around, she’ll come around, and everything’s gonna come around when it comes around.”
Esparza’s words confirm that things Estrada are personal, but she also told FanSided that her primary goal is to unify to the title. That seems to take priority over an Estrada rematch.
Estrada has a different take on why Esparza isn’t calling her name as boisterously as she once had.
“She was so confident that she would beat me,” said Estrada. “So confident that she was better skilled than me. That she was the one that wasn’t going to get tired. The one that you know, just all these things in her mind that she thought that I wasn’t, I showed her that I was. I think it kind of shocked her and scared her a bit because now she’s not really pushing the rematch, and she was pushing it right after the fight, but I think she took some time to think about it, and now she’s just like okay, I’m just gonna stay away from Seniesa for a while.”
Like Esparza, Estrada has a major boxing goal, but she seems like she’s more than ready to make the rematch next. However, Estrada’s dream and an Esparza rematch tie together.
“Fighting at 112 is definitely more of a risk because I’m naturally smaller than these girls, but I still want to fight there and get world titles there because I know skillfully, I’m better than all the girls who hold world titles at that weight class,” said Estrada. “And right now, I’m just trying to stick to 105, 108 to get all the belts there that I want. And then, yeah, eventually go to 112 and fight there too.”
Fighting at 112 may be risky, but it would also allow Estrada to collect a title in a third weight class. Being an active concurrent three-division world champion is practically unheard of and would offer Estrada huge bragging rights. It would elevate her legacy to new heights.
Remember, Esparza has a belt at 112. I bet with it on the line, Estrada would be more than happy to meet Esparza in the ring again.