Be it becoming the first and only woman to stop Joanna Jedrzejcyzk with that punishing combination at UFC 217, or losing by getting viciously slammed on her head by Jessica Andrade at UFC 237, or even knocking out Zhang Weili in 78 seconds with a feint-into-headkick to become the only two-time champion of her division at UFC 261, Rose Namajunas is no stranger to crazy moments in UFC women's strawweight title bouts. Of all the shock wins and losses in the company’s history, nobody has had so many in such quick succession.

Which is to say that her long awaited rematch with Carla Esparza was expected to be wild in one way or another. When the two first faced off at the finale of The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned on December 12, 2014, Esparza won by rear naked choke to become the inaugural UFC women's strawweight champion.

Especially as in the intervening seven-and-a-half years, Namajunas has grown leaps and bounds, becoming both an elite striker and wrestler under the tutelage of Trevor Whitman and also much more emotionally stable and confident in the cage thanks to coaching for her fiancée Pat Barry.

Esparza, on the other hand, disappeared into journeywoman territory almost as soon as she won the belt. She was destroyed in her first title defense by Joanna Jedrzejczyk and then went 3-3, all of which were decision results save for a TKO loss to Tatiana Suarez at UFC 228 on September 8, 2018.

However, from here she went on a five-fight win streak, four of which were dominant decision wins that came due to her grappling expertise, but then when she beat Yan Xiaonan by TKO, bloodying her process with some brute ground-and-pound from the crucifix position, suddenly the UFC matchmakers had to pay attention, and this title bout was made.

Instead of getting craziness, the UFC got nothing – five rounds of it.

Quite often, when a fighter is described as "doing nothing," quite often it means that they weren't being entertaining rather than meaning they were actually doing nothing in the Octagon. A good example is the Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero bout from UFC 248. Very little happened as it was two counter-fighters facing each other, meaning they were both passive while waiting for the other to make a mistake and leave an opening.

For Namajunas and Esparza there was a lot of circling and feinting and circling and feinting and, when the first round finished, the two had the exact same stats: four strikes landed out of 19 thrown.

First rounds can often be cagey as the fighters try and find their range. In the second round, Rose landed three from 14 attempts while Esparza stayed on four strikes, this time from 22 attempts.

Not only that but the shots that landed were jabs, leg kicks, glancing punches that were immediately pulled back from. It would have looked like glorified sparring were it not for the strikes that didn't land; Esparza, never known for her striking, was often punching thin air, perhaps to keep the champion at distance or perhaps because she felt like she had to do something as Namajunas bounced around.

Things changed slightly in the third round as Esparza now tried to establish her grappling, only to find herself unable to take Namajunas down. Though it didn't lead anywhere, it was a refreshing change of pace to see aggression after 10 minutes of stalling.

She tried again in the fourth and managed a whole 20 seconds of control before Namajunas popped back up – and did nothing. And neither did Carla Esparza, so when the fifth and (thankfully) final round began, commentator Joe Rogan described the bout as "the dud of duds." His colleague Daniel Cormier pointed out that so little had happened, the smallest of highlights could lead to the largest of results in either direction.

Perhaps Namajunas heard this, perhaps she was simply reacting to the clapper that signaled there were only 10 seconds remaining, either way she snapped to life and launched an incredibly soft flurry at Esparza before taking her down for a total of eight seconds control time.

Overall, in 25 minutes, Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza hit each other a total of 67 times. In the opening bout of the night Francisco Trinaldo hit his opponent Danny Roberts 80 times in 15 minutes; Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira combined for 51 in 3:22 of a single round.

To a chorus of boos, ring announcer Bruce Buffer announced the winner by split decision (47-48, 46-49, 48-47) was Carla Esparza. Almost a decade after losing her belt, she was back at the top of the mountain, and after so much toil, she reclaimed the gold without breaking a sweat – and for Namajunas losing her belt, she did so likewise.