(Abs. Also pictured: Claudia Gadelha)
I think we all agree that The Ultimate Fighter has become a tired, worn out concept — to the point where even the fighters on the show don’t seem to give much of a crap any more. But women are doing their best to eliminate that not so fresh feeling from the show. TUF 18 featured bantamweight women alongside men, and TUF 20 (debuting in September) will be 100% 115-pound female goodness.
One fighter originally slated to appear on TUF 20 was Claudia Gadelha. Considered by many to be the ringer of the season, the undefeated BJJ black belt ended up being removed due to her inability to no speako de englis. But because of this switch-up, it now looks like she’ll get the honor of kicking off the women’s strawweight division when she fights victim opponent Tina Lahdemaki at UFC Fight Night 45 on July 16th.
It turns out that Claudia also has a bit of an interesting history: She is best known for a stint on Brazilian television where she fought dudes in the cage for a show called Panico Na TV. None of these guys were actually professional fighters and you can tell the goal isn’t to murderize each other. But speaking as an ill prepared TV host who once ‘fought’ Patrick Cote, this stuff can get pretty serious (at least for the poor bastards getting whupped).
Let’s take a look at some of these videos!
The silliest and therefore best of the bunch. Three Panico Na TV hosts visit Claudia where she trains, and she beats all three like bongos. If you’ve only got time to watch one person get their ass whupped today, may I recommend host #3 (7:20 into the vid), who decides about halfway through that he no longer wants to do this skit.
Next page: More of Claudia hurting poorly prepared individuals!