Carla Esparza ended her career on a bittersweet loss after three hard-fought rounds against Tecia Pennington on the UFC 307 prelims.

The two-time former strawweight champion found success early with a takedown but then couldn’t keep up with Pennington’s striking, which ultimately cost her the fight. The scorecards came back 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 with Pennington getting the win by unanimous decision.

“Can’t leave it to the judges,” Esparza said after announcing that Saturday would serve as her retirement fight. “I thought I won it. Great fight, Tecia. Honored to go out with a veteran from TUF.”

With tears in her eyes, Esparza watched a tribute video prepared by the UFC to say goodbye before leaving her gloves in the octagon for the final time.

“It’s been an amazing journey this last 15 years,” Esparza said. “I fought the best of the best. It’s not always easy. I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Thank to all the UFC fans, my friends, my family, the awesome UFC staff. Just everybody. I love this sport, thank you guys so much.”

While it wasn’t the way she wanted to go out, Esparza kept it close but the difference really came down to Pennington’s ability to do more damage on the feet.

Aggressive from the start, Pennington immediately set the tone with a sharp striking attack to keep Esparza on her backfoot. Pennington blasted Esparza with a stiff right hand midway through the opening round that appeared to wobble the former strawweight champion momentarily.

That led to a takedown from Esparza as she not only took the dominant position but allowed herself time to recover after struggling in the striking exchanges early. Esparza continued to pepper way with short punches while maintaining control over Pennington.

Back on the feet to start the second round, Esparza showed better striking including a right hand that clubbed Pennington and got her attention. Pennington started firing back before she clipped Esparza with a rapid-fire combination that once again caught her off guard.

As time passed, Pennington really showed superiority with her strikes, which included some good leg kicks that chipped away at Esparza’s foundation. While Pennington was controlling the distance, Esparza did manage to explode forward a few times to connect with a couple of good punches before getting one final takedown.

Esparza attempted one last flurry with punches and elbows but she just couldn’t mount enough offense to counter the superior striking from Pennington during the five minute session.

After losing two razor-close decisions in her previous two appearances in the UFC, Pennington was happy to finally get back in the win column.

“I give it to myself,” Pennington said about the decision. “I don’t care about the boos.”

Pennington now gets to enjoy her win while waiting for her wife — UFC bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington — to perform in the co-main event at UFC 307