Photo by Christian Petersen/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC
Strawweight Claudia Gadelha was removed from her December 7 bout against Cynthia Calvillo.
An injury suffered in Claudia Gadelha’s last fight took a turn for the worse and forced the strawweight contender to pull out of her next match, against Cynthia Calvillo, at UFC Washington in December.
In an interview with Combate, the 30-year-old explained that she hurt her ankle during her fight against Randa Markos, back in July, which she won via unanimous decision. However, she was unable to properly heal in time to start training for her next outing.
“I gravely injured it in my last fight, I broke a toe and sprained my ankle. Ever since the UFC got in touch with me to seal the deal for this Calvillo fight, they knew I was injured. We tried to heal in all possible ways. I got a stem cell injection in my ankle. My toe is all right, but my ankle is not healing and I can’t fight injured.”
Per ESPN’s Brett Okamoto’s Twitter, undefeated prospect Marina Rodriguez (12-0-1) was close in contention to being the one to replace Gadelha and later on MMA Fighting confirmed the news. The 32-year-old will step in on a two-fight winning streak, with after besting both Jessica Aguilar and Tecia Torres via unanimous decision, while fighting Randa Markos to a majority draw in her Octagon debut,
Claudia Gadelha (17-4) has been alternating wins and losses for her past four bouts, picking up decision victories over Randa Markos and Carla Esparza, while dropping decisions to Nina Ansaroff and Jessica Andrade.
UFC on ESPN 7 is expected to take place on December 7, in Washington, D.C.. The card is scheduled to be headlined by a heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris.