Claudia Gadelha was promised a shot at the UFC strawweight title after defeating Jessica Aguilar at UFC 190 on Aug. 1, but recent reports indicated that Valerie Letourneau could get the next shot at champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
According to Yahoo’s Kevin Iole, the promotion considered booking Jedrzejczyk vs. Letourneau for UFC 193 when welterweight champion Robbie Lawler was forced out of the Nov. 14 card in Australia.
Gadelha was surprised to hear the news.
“I don’t know anything about this,” Gadelha told MMAFighting.com on Saturday. “I read Dana White’s comments, but he hasn’t talked with us yet.”
Gadelha, who lost a close split decision fight against Jedrzejczyk in her second UFC bout, believes the 115-pound champion is trying to avoid a rematch with her.
“Joanna said she would be ready to fight me by December or January because of her injury, but she’s ready to fight someone else earlier,” Gadelha said. “I said I’d be ready by December or January because she was also injured, but if Dana White wants to give her another fight, do it.”
“Put another one in front of me and I will run through her. This fight will happen, but this is really disrespectful,” she continued. “The belt is mine. I beat her once, and I will beat her again. They are trying to take this away from me for a while, but my time will come.”