If he could go back in time, Pat Barry wouldn’t have Rose Namajunas do anything differently in her rematch with Carla Esparza.
Namajunas was on the losing end of a split decision that cost her the strawweight title this past Saturday at UFC 274 in Phoenix. One judge scored the fight 48-47 for Namajunas, with the other two judges going for Esparza 49-46 and 48-47.
The bout, which served as the UFC 274 co-main event, was tough to score because both women hesitated to engage for the vast majority of 25 minutes, making it perhaps the most boring title fight in UFC history that had Dana White “zoning out” while he watched.
In the immediate aftermath, Namajunas said she thought she won and was proud of herself for sticking to the game plan. Barry, a former UFC fighter who is Namajunas’ coach and fiance, echoed that sentiment during an appearance Wednesday on “The MMA Hour.”
“Rose stuck to a game plan,” Barry said. “We had a strategy, and she stuck to it for the first time ever. For the first time ever she stuck to the game plan and didn’t stray away. She didn’t become undisciplined. She stuck to it. It just so happens that Carla stuck to her game plan, too, and neither one of them broke. That’s all we were waiting for.”
Given the result, it can be argued that Namajunas stuck to her game plan to a fault. She’s the superior striker, and the fight with Esparza mostly was contested on the feet. Yet Namajunas said she kept her distance out of respect for Esparza’s wrestling, despite finding success stuffing takedowns in the early rounds.
This begs the question: Should Namajunas have let loose?
“People are gonna say that, but those are the same people that I have to ask: What if Rose would’ve jumped in the air and started doing spin kicks and gotten taken down, crucifixed, and elbowed in the face?” Barry said. “Now what? Now I made the bad call by saying go in there and freestyle? Because there’s no winning. What the world says about Pat doesn’t matter to Pat. It doesn’t matter to Rose, and that’s why it doesn’t matter to Pat.”
Barry said he and Namajunas have watched the fight once since Saturday and are “probably never gonna watch it again.” During the re-watch, Barry paid attention to Esparza’s corner advice in between rounds, which seemed to confirm that Namajunas needed to stay patient.
In the end, Namajunas’ loss to Esparza was just “one of those days” to Barry.
“Every time they click over to Carla’s corner in between rounds, you can hear (Esparza coach Colin) Oyama saying, ‘She’s about to do that thing that she always does. The crowd’s booing, she’s getting frustrated, she’s gonna do that thing, and when she does it, you know exactly what to do.’ This was the scenario,” Barry said. “How many times have you seen fighters come out that are just amazing at everything they do, and then they wind up in some type of silly scenario that maybe they shouldn’t be in. You know? Maybe they shouldn’t be in. Rose has been one for creating masterpieces almost every time she gets in there. … That’s the ‘Thug Rose’ everybody is in love with. Everybody loves (it). That’s what people show up for. People show up to see ‘Thug Rose’ do something amazing because every time she gets in there – nine out of 10 times – it’s something amazing.
“Just every once in a while, a fight lands on one of those days. A fight lands on one of those days where there can be explanations, there can be reasoning for things. It’s just once in a while, you just have one of those days. And it just so happens that this was one of those days.”
