The UFC pay-per-view event at Salt Lake City’s Delta Center features several interesting matchups, including two championship fights. However, it’s a UFC 307 preliminary fight that we’re going to focus on in this betting preview. The fight in question is Carla Esparza vs. Tecia Pennington.
This UFC 307 prelim is interesting for several reasons, starting from the fact that this is Carla Esparza’s final professional fight. After fighting for more than 14 years, the former UFC Women’s Strawweight champion will retire.
She’ll do it after the fight with Tecia Pennington, the wife of Raquel Pennington, who will be fighting a few hours later.
Carla Esparza vs. Tecia Pennington Odds
| Moneyline | Odds |
| Carla Esparza | +150 |
| Tecia Pennington | -180 |
Odds Provided by Sports Odds Direct as of Friday, October 4, 2024
When, Where, and How to Watch?
- Place: Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah
- Date: Saturday, October 5, 2024
- Time: ~10:00 p.m. ET
- How to Watch: PPV
Carla Esparza a.k.a. Cookie Monster started her professional MMA career back in 2010. Now, at the age of 36 (she’ll be turning 37 just five days after UFC 307), she wants to bring this chapter of her life to a closure.
Her career was very successful overall, with 13 wins and seven losses. One of those losses happened in her most recent fight, which was a title fight against Zhang Weilli. She lost her championship belt to the Chinese fighter after suffering a submission loss in the second round. It’s been nearly two years since that fight, so she might have some ring rust.
Cookie Monster might not be in the best shape of her life, but no one should doubt her skills. She’s a very well-rounded fighter with plenty of weapons in her arsenal.
She’s been wrestling her entire life and has a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which makes her a very dangerous grappler. On top of everything, she hits very hard both with her legs and fists. Unfortunately for her, the same applies to her UFC 307 opponent, Tecia Pennington.
Tecia Pennington has already fought against Carla Esparza once. It happened almost a decade ago when she was known as Tecia Torres. The two fought in the exhibition fight, which was a part of The Ultimate Fighter 20.
Esparza won the fight, but it was very close. After two rounds of intense fighting, she won by majority decision. That fight showed how tough Tecia is. All seven of her losses in professional fights happen by decision – she’s still without a single loss inside the distance.
What’s probably very annoying for her is that she lost both of her last fights by split decision. What this means is that she has been without a single win since the summer of 2021.
When it comes to her 13 pro wins, 11 of them happened by decision. She also has one win by submission and one by knockout.
Even prime Carla Esparza was unable to beat Tecia Pennington easily. She beat her at TUF by majority decision. Ten years later, we think Tecia will get her revenge. Her fighting skills have improved drastically since that fight, and we think she’s got what it takes to beat her old foe.
