Claudi Gadelha Determined to Get Trilogy Bout with Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Claudi Gadelha Determined to Get Trilogy Bout with Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Former UFC strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha will look to get back on track at Fight Night 100.
Claudia Gadelha suffered the biggest setback of her professional career when she fell to strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk for a second time at The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale back in July.
Gadelha will look to rebound Saturday night and get back into the title discussion when she steps into the Octagon for the first time since the defeat at the hands of her bitter rival. The scrappy Brazilian will face up-and-coming prospect Cortney Casey on the main card of Fight Night 100 in Sao Paulo, Brazil on FS1.
“Cortney’s best qualities are being big and strong.” Gadelha said. “I know how big she is for the division. I don’t think she is very technical. I am ready to execute the game plan. We did a lot of work and I am ready for this fight.”
The disappointment and lack of excitement can be heard in Gadelha’s voice when discussing her opponent. Gadelha still sits as the number one strawweight in the UFC while her opponent Casey finds herself outside of the official UFC rankings. Gadelha made it known that she was looking for a higher profile dance partner, but unfortunately most of the top ten strawweights were booked.
Gadelha openly admits a victory over Casey won’t do much for her career advancement.
“I go nowhere.” Gadelha said. “I don’t think I can go any farther with this fight. I have Cortney now but I really want to fight Carla (Esparza). I was supposed to fight her two times for Invicta. I broke my nose before the first fight. The second time I got sick at the weigh ins. I feel really sad for what happened. That fight has to happen. I want to fight Carla for my own pride. From there we can think about the future but I need to do the fight with Carla.”
One very exciting factor for Gadelha that could eliminate any chance of a letdown in Brazil lies in the passionate fan base that will be in the arena cheering her on to victory. The proud Brazilian will be fighting in front her countrymen and women for the second time under the UFC banner. She will do everything in her power to give the faithful fans something to applaud when the final bell sounds.
“I was asking the UFC to let me fight in Brazil.” Gadelha said. “I fought here at UFC 190 and I loved it. I am really excited to fight here again in front of my people. The crowd there is different than anywhere else. It’s even better because I grew up in this country. It is a very hard country to grow up in. We don’t have a lot of opportunities in life. We are warriors. I love to see my people screaming my name and cheering for me.”
The second half of the year has been a whirlwind of sorts for the former title contender. After the setback loss to Jedrzejczyk she came to the realization that major changes needed to be made. There were whispers of unrest within her team. There was evidence of an exorbitant amount of work being done leading up to the Jedrzejczyk fight, even to the point of being overworked warming up in the moments prior to the fight.
“After my title fight with Joanna I felt I was overtraining.” Gadelha said. “I did a 17-week training camp. I did a lot of other things wrong, too. I was training to hard the entire week of the fight. Even my warmup was too hard. Everything was too hard in that fight camp. I was my fault. It is no one else’s fault. I should have said no. I should have said it was too much. Even during the fight I felt like I had done more than I should have to get there.”
In March she parted ways with her longtime Nova Uniao team in Brazil and opened her namesake gym, Claudia Gadelha’s MMA and BJJ Academy, in Stroudsburg, PA. Then in early November Gadelha picked up and moved her gym to Randolph, NJ. It was announced that she would be doing her actual fight camps with two of the best gyms on the planet in New Mexico.
Gadelha feels confident that she has found the right mix to get her back on the title track.
“I’m training in Albuquerque.” Gadelha said. “I am training with Coach Chris Luttrell. We spent eight weeks together. I was doing my sparring at Jackson-Wink MMA. I had a great experience there. It’s just good for my game to be there. It just adds so many elements to my game.
”I am a fighter who likes to study. I want to always be improving and getting better. I was going to the US to train and I saw how they did things differently. I was interested in trying. I feel like I need to go somewhere else and try new things. I didn’t feel like I was getting any better. I was just killing myself training harder and harder. I needed to go somewhere and do it the right way. I am confident that I have found that here.”
Gadelha will look to rebound Saturday night and get back into the title discussion when she steps into the Octagon for the first time since the defeat at the hands of her bitter rival. The scrappy Brazilian will face up-and-coming prospect Cortney Casey on the main card of Fight Night 100 in Sao Paulo, Brazil on FS1.
“Cortney’s best qualities are being big and strong.” Gadelha said. “I know how big she is for the division. I don’t think she is very technical. I am ready to execute the game plan. We did a lot of work and I am ready for this fight.”
The disappointment and lack of excitement can be heard in Gadelha’s voice when discussing her opponent. Gadelha still sits as the number one strawweight in the UFC while her opponent Casey finds herself outside of the official UFC rankings. Gadelha made it known that she was looking for a higher profile dance partner, but unfortunately most of the top ten strawweights were booked.
Gadelha openly admits a victory over Casey won’t do much for her career advancement.
“I go nowhere.” Gadelha said. “I don’t think I can go any farther with this fight. I have Cortney now but I really want to fight Carla (Esparza). I was supposed to fight her two times for Invicta. I broke my nose before the first fight. The second time I got sick at the weigh ins. I feel really sad for what happened. That fight has to happen. I want to fight Carla for my own pride. From there we can think about the future but I need to do the fight with Carla.”
One very exciting factor for Gadelha that could eliminate any chance of a letdown in Brazil lies in the passionate fan base that will be in the arena cheering her on to victory. The proud Brazilian will be fighting in front her countrymen and women for the second time under the UFC banner. She will do everything in her power to give the faithful fans something to applaud when the final bell sounds.
“I was asking the UFC to let me fight in Brazil.” Gadelha said. “I fought here at UFC 190 and I loved it. I am really excited to fight here again in front of my people. The crowd there is different than anywhere else. It’s even better because I grew up in this country. It is a very hard country to grow up in. We don’t have a lot of opportunities in life. We are warriors. I love to see my people screaming my name and cheering for me.”
The second half of the year has been a whirlwind of sorts for the former title contender. After the setback loss to Jedrzejczyk she came to the realization that major changes needed to be made. There were whispers of unrest within her team. There was evidence of an exorbitant amount of work being done leading up to the Jedrzejczyk fight, even to the point of being overworked warming up in the moments prior to the fight.
“After my title fight with Joanna I felt I was overtraining.” Gadelha said. “I did a 17-week training camp. I did a lot of other things wrong, too. I was training to hard the entire week of the fight. Even my warmup was too hard. Everything was too hard in that fight camp. I was my fault. It is no one else’s fault. I should have said no. I should have said it was too much. Even during the fight I felt like I had done more than I should have to get there.”
In March she parted ways with her longtime Nova Uniao team in Brazil and opened her namesake gym, Claudia Gadelha’s MMA and BJJ Academy, in Stroudsburg, PA. Then in early November Gadelha picked up and moved her gym to Randolph, NJ. It was announced that she would be doing her actual fight camps with two of the best gyms on the planet in New Mexico.
Gadelha feels confident that she has found the right mix to get her back on the title track.
“I’m training in Albuquerque.” Gadelha said. “I am training with Coach Chris Luttrell. We spent eight weeks together. I was doing my sparring at Jackson-Wink MMA. I had a great experience there. It’s just good for my game to be there. It just adds so many elements to my game.
”I am a fighter who likes to study. I want to always be improving and getting better. I was going to the US to train and I saw how they did things differently. I was interested in trying. I feel like I need to go somewhere else and try new things. I didn’t feel like I was getting any better. I was just killing myself training harder and harder. I needed to go somewhere and do it the right way. I am confident that I have found that here.”