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MEXICO CITY — Inaugural UFC strawweight champion Carla Esparza’s victory over Virna Jandiroba at UFC on ESPN+ 8 wasn’t just a return to the win column. The one-sided win over the previously undefeated former Invicta FC champ was just the shot of adrenaline her career needed.

Esparza shook off a two-fight losing streak with the victory, which she feels will carry over into her UFC on ESPN+ 17 co-feature bout against Alexa Grasso on Saturday night.

“It felt so amazing,” Esparza said. “It was just one of those things, like, there’s so much pressure going into a fight where you’re on a two-fight losing streak and I made a lot of adjustments in my camp and just in my mentality and just training and the situation. They all should be like that but it’s a little bit more pressure with two fights behind you.”

That confidence is a good thing, because Esparza (14-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC) could be going into somewhat hostile territory in Mexico’s capital city. While the Southern California native is of part-Mexican ancestry herself, she knows the crowd is likely to be behind Guadalajara native Grasso (11-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC), and she’s learned to embrace the crowd’s reactions.

“It’s such a crazy thing because I’ve always had such support from the Latin community over my career,” Esparza said. “Whenever I’m in someone’s hometown, it is what it is. My coach even warned me, he said hey, the Mexican community, they have such a strong fighting background over the years have such a strong history, they love the fighting, and I know as a Latina, we support our own, and so I’m definitely not going to be surprised if I get some boos, but overall I know a lot of fans have expressed they’re fans of both of us.”

Esparza, who was also the inaugural Invicta FC strawweight champion, knows that there’s a clear disparity in career accomplishments between herself and her foe. But she’s using Weili Zhang’s recent strawweight title win over Jessica Andrade as all the proof she needs to take her current foe seriously.

“For me, after that I saw that fight, I was like “oh my gosh,” Esparza said. “It just it’s like the nature of this sport. You think the rankings are how they are and this person can beat this person, but there’s alway just young up and comers coming out of nowhere and making a storm and that’s why even in this fight with Alexa, she’s hungry too. You never Just because someone isn’t a familiar face necessarily in the game, doesn’t mean they’re not going to come after you and make waves in the division.”

UFC on ESPN+ 17 takes place Saturday at Arena Ciudad de Mexico. The card streams on ESPN+.

To hear more from Esparza, click on the video linked above.