Carla Esparza vs.
Alexa Grasso
Two full careers, measured against each man's own division and against each other — the tape, the read, and every number behind them.
The men, measured.
Frame, age, layoff and recent form — green marks the edge on each line.
What the numbers say.
Scouting notes, auto-generated — only stats deviating more than 25% from the division median make this list. No narratives, just deviations.
Who did they actually beat?
Full-career records re-graded by the tier of opposition — the same grading the Contender Series pick model uses. Records built on tier-4 competition are worth less than records built on killers.
Carla Esparza
| Competition tier | W | L |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — UFC / DWCS / PFL / Bellator / ONE / Rizin | 10 | 8 |
| Tier 3 — regional circuit | 9 | 0 |
Tier-weighted record quality: 1.0 · 10 tier-1/2 wins · 8 finish wins over 27 documented bouts
In the UFC: 8-5 against opponents who walked in above .500 · avg opponent walk-in record +2.1 wins over .500
Alexa Grasso
| Competition tier | W | L |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — UFC / DWCS / PFL / Bellator / ONE / Rizin | 9 | 5 |
| Tier 3 — regional circuit | 7 | 0 |
Tier-weighted record quality: 1.2 · 9 tier-1/2 wins · 6 finish wins over 22 documented bouts
In the UFC: 6-5 against opponents who walked in above .500 · avg opponent walk-in record +3.5 wins over .500
The stand-up battle.
Career totals; norms are the medians of each man's own division.
Significant strikes — landed & absorbed
Where the fight happens (share of sig. strike attempts)
Carla Esparza
Distance 75.0% (norm 86.9%) · Clinch 8.5% (norm 7.7%) · Ground 16.5% (norm 5.0%)
Alexa Grasso
Distance 89.7% (norm 87.6%) · Clinch 8.5% (norm 7.3%) · Ground 1.7% (norm 4.9%)
What they throw (share of sig. strike attempts by target)
Carla Esparza
Head 86.0% (norm 76.4%) · Body 8.1% (norm 14.9%) · Legs 5.9% (norm 9.1%)
Alexa Grasso
Head 76.6% (norm 78.1%) · Body 11.8% (norm 14.2%) · Legs 11.6% (norm 7.7%)
Zone accuracy matrix Landed / attempted by zone
Green ≥ division median, red below. UFCStats tracks position and target as separate splits.
| Zone | Esparza L/A | Acc | Women's Strawweight med | Grasso L/A | Acc | Women's Flyweight med |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BY POSITION | ||||||
| At distance | 280 / 935 | 29.9% | 38.3% | 750 / 2010 | 37.3% | 39.9% |
| In the clinch | 63 / 106 | 59.4% | 72.6% | 142 / 191 | 74.3% | 73.3% |
| On the ground | 149 / 206 | 72.3% | 75.0% | 29 / 39 | 74.4% | 74.7% |
| BY TARGET | ||||||
| To the head | 363 / 1072 | 33.9% | 35.4% | 570 / 1716 | 33.2% | 34.9% |
| To the body | 71 / 101 | 70.3% | 69.3% | 174 / 264 | 65.9% | 69.5% |
| To the legs | 58 / 74 | 78.4% | 77.9% | 177 / 260 | 68.1% | 82.6% |
Zones with fewer than 25 attempts are marked "too few to rate". Each fighter is measured against the median of leaderboard-eligible fighters in his own division (Women's Strawweight: 63 fighters · Women's Flyweight: 46 fighters).
What lands on them Opponents' accuracy against each man
Green ≤ division median — harder to hit than the typical man in his division.
| Zone | vs Esparza L/A | Opp acc | Women's Strawweight med | vs Grasso L/A | Opp acc | Women's Flyweight med |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BY POSITION | ||||||
| At distance | 409 / 1103 | 37.1% | 39.7% | 709 / 1838 | 38.6% | 38.8% |
| In the clinch | 53 / 87 | 60.9% | 71.5% | 76 / 114 | 66.7% | 74.1% |
| On the ground | 182 / 222 | 82.0% | 74.4% | 46 / 61 | 75.4% | 73.4% |
| BY TARGET | ||||||
| To the head | 473 / 1195 | 39.6% | 36.0% | 598 / 1692 | 35.3% | 35.3% |
| To the body | 90 / 119 | 75.6% | 68.4% | 145 / 210 | 69.0% | 69.0% |
| To the legs | 81 / 98 | 82.7% | 79.1% | 88 / 111 | 79.3% | 78.7% |
The ground war.
Takedowns, control and submissions — career totals with each man's per-minute rates against his division norm.
Bars compare the two men's rates (per-minute / per-15 figures), not raw totals — Esparza has more cage time on record.