With all due respect to Jose Aldo and Max Holloway, who are likely to burn down the building from Brazil, the fight that might be the most entertaining will come right before them. Claudia Gadelha and Karolina Kowalkiewicz both know what it takes to compete for UFC gold. That means they are as hungry as […]
With all due respect to Jose Aldo and Max Holloway, who are likely to burn down the building from Brazil, the fight that might be the most entertaining will come right before them. Claudia Gadelha and Karolina Kowalkiewicz both know what it takes to compete for UFC gold. That means they are as hungry as […]
After Sunday’s fights and Alexander Gustafsson’s brilliant performance against Glover Teixeira, the UFC is back with more action with a robust card in Rio de Janiero. While the main event features two of the top featherweights in the world, the co-main event offers up some strawweight action as two former title challengers square off. Claudia Gadelha versus Karoline Kowalkiewicz has all the makings of fight of the night written all over it. Both women fight at a high pace with their own individual strengths and weaknesses. It’s a nice style clash that should offer up some interesting results.
After Sunday’s fights and Alexander Gustafsson’s brilliant performance against Glover Teixeira, the UFC is back with more action with a robust card in Rio de Janiero. While the main event features two of the top featherweights in the world, the co-main event offers up some strawweight action as two former title challengers square off. Claudia Gadelha versus Karoline Kowalkiewicz has all the makings of fight of the night written all over it. Both women fight at a high pace with their own individual strengths and weaknesses. It’s a nice style clash that should offer up some interesting results.
Claudia Gadelha missed her opportunity to become the third strawweight champion as she lost her grudge match to Joanna Jedrzejczyk last July at the TUF 23 finale. Since then she’s made a few changes to her training, the biggest of which was a shift in camps. She left Nova Uniao and relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Jackson-Winklejohn gym. There, she has hoped to improve upon her style which is a nice mash up of hard nosed Muay Thai, wrestling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Gadelha has always excelled in grappling and did well in her rematch against Jedrzejczyk in the early goings before fatigue set in.
She’ll once again want to rely on her grappling skills in this match up as Kowalkiewicz is a fighter who thrives on battling things out on the feet. Gadelha’s striking is sound and is arguably on par if not more technical than her opponent’s approach, yet she does have a tendency to brawl and remain stationary when throwing strikes. Instead, Gadelha should want to entice her opponent into a brawl then surprise her with a reactive double leg takedown. From there, Gadelha should look to ride things out in half guard, defend the underhook, and land ground and pound to her hearts content. Playing around in full guard and mount is certainly an option, but Kowalkiewicz is savvy and isn’t afraid to throw up submission. Softening her up should be Gadelha’s priority before hunting for submissions.
On the flip side of things we have Karolina Kowalkiewicz who could be one of my favorite female fighters in the game today. While Joanna Jedrzejczyk may be the queen of technical skill, Jessica Andrade the queen of ferociousness, and Claudia Gadelha the queen of grappling, Karolina Kowalkiewicz is the queen dirty fighting in strawweight division. That is neither a reference to her cleanliness or an allegation of cheating, but rather her ability to take fights where she wants them and excel in close in combat, particularly the clinch.
While she came up short against the champion at UFC 205 due to being picked apart from the outside, Karolina Kowalkiewicz proved that she won’t stop moving forward. But she’ll want to control her aggression in this bout as Claudia Gadelha is likely looking for an opportunity to put Kowalkiewicz on her back. Rather than resorting to her blitzing style of attack, Karolina should look to throw jabs, straights, and front kicks to keep Gadelha at bay. She also needs to keep her feet moving laterally in hopes of avoiding the takedown. If she is taken to mat however she should look to get the cage, wall walk, then use the opportunity to battle inside the clinch. Barring that, the occasional 2-1 blitz could be a nice way to close the distance and get into clinch territory.
Who wins this battle of strawweight contenders?
Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.
Claudia Gadelha wants to give back to the sport that has changed her life. This Saturday night (June 3) at UFC 212, Gadelha will go one-on-one with fellow former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Gadelha will be the hometown favorite as the bout will be held inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The spotlight […]
Claudia Gadelha wants to give back to the sport that has changed her life. This Saturday night (June 3) at UFC 212, Gadelha will go one-on-one with fellow former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Gadelha will be the hometown favorite as the bout will be held inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The spotlight […]
UFC 212’s strawweight division bout in Rio is likely to be one of the most closely contested bouts so far this year with Karolina Kowalkiewicz (10-1) looking to reinstate herself as a strong contender. She takes on Claudia Gadelha (14-2) who has shown some great grappling and clinching skills that have brought her victory in […]
UFC 212’s strawweight division bout in Rio is likely to be one of the most closely contested bouts so far this year with Karolina Kowalkiewicz (10-1) looking to reinstate herself as a strong contender. She takes on Claudia Gadelha (14-2) who has shown some great grappling and clinching skills that have brought her victory in the past. Kowalkiewicz is likely to be a great match especially with her striking skills and strong footwork.
Kowalkiewicz and Gadelha have been taken down by Joanna Jedrzejczyk who has been their fiercest opponent. The latter lost to Jedrzejczyk twice while Kowalkiewicz was defeated on one occasion. However, are now hardened and are no mean contenders in this co-main event. Gadelha may have an edge given the fact that this will be a three round bout despite her limited cardio down the stretch as compared to Kowalkiewicz. The Polish fighter does have the skill and 10 victories to her credit.
It is important to note that Kowalkiewicz has won five of her last six fights and averages 4.56 strikes per minute and zero takedowns with a zero percent accuracy percentage. She’s coming back from a November loss to Jedrzejczyk and it will be interesting to see how much momentum she is able to gather. As long as she is aggressive with her strikes she may stand a chance. However, it must be noted that she hasn’t executed a takedown in the UFC although she has been taken down three times in the last two bouts. Gadhela is likely to get her opponent to fight from the canvas, which she is probably aware that Kowalkiewicz has been struggling with. Gadelha is one of the most smothering opponents in the MMA and may be able to pocket this one by a unanimous decision.
Flash back two years in this UFC 212 fight primer as Claudia Gadelha takes on Jessica Aguilar. Gadelha will meet Karolina Kowalkiewicz in the co-main event next Saturday night of UFC 212 from Brazil. The Brazilian entered the contest at UFC 190 vs. Aguilar as the No. 1 ranked challenger to Joanna Jedrzejczyk and the […]
Flash back two years in this UFC 212 fight primer as Claudia Gadelha takes on Jessica Aguilar. Gadelha will meet Karolina Kowalkiewicz in the co-main event next Saturday night of UFC 212 from Brazil. The Brazilian entered the contest at UFC 190 vs. Aguilar as the No. 1 ranked challenger to Joanna Jedrzejczyk and the […]
It appears the rumors are true strawweights Claudia Gadelha and Karolina Kowalkiewicz will do battle on June 3rd in San Paulo, Brazil.
Claudia (16-2), who’s only two losses have come by way of arch nemesis and strawweight champion Joannajedrzejczyk, is a hard charging brazilian with knockout power and a ground game to boot. She’s looking to make short work of Karolina in hopes that the 3rd time’s a charm with JJ.
Karolina (16-1) is a precise striker with great movement and a granite chin. She’s one of those sick puppies that like getting hit. She stood toe to to with Joanna for 5 rounds and it looked like she might pull off an upset in the fourth. Unfortunately for her it was to no avail but you can bet she’s itching to get back in there and earn herself another title shot.
While this is a pick’em fight, I’m going to have to give the advantage to Karolina simply because I think she has the better gas tank. Other than that this match is in a dead heat and I’m sure they’ll be fireworks come June 3rd.
We’ll keep you posted on the newest information in the next couple of weeks.
