Claudia Gadelha simply wants to fight. She’s developed a reputation for being the second best strawweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). She’s in a weird spot as another title shot isn’t likely in her near future. She’s already lost to the current champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk twice. Gadelha explained to MMAJunkie.com why she can’t get […]
Claudia Gadelha simply wants to fight. She’s developed a reputation for being the second best strawweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). She’s in a weird spot as another title shot isn’t likely in her near future. She’s already lost to the current champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk twice. Gadelha explained to MMAJunkie.com why she can’t get […]
Claudia Gadelha is 2-0 against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, but she doesn’t feel that way. Gadelha is coming off a quick submission victory over Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 212. Gadelha has now won two straight bouts and remains at the number one spot on the official Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strawweight division. Speaking to reporters, Gadelha said […]
Claudia Gadelha is 2-0 against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, but she doesn’t feel that way. Gadelha is coming off a quick submission victory over Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 212. Gadelha has now won two straight bouts and remains at the number one spot on the official Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strawweight division. Speaking to reporters, Gadelha said […]
For Claudia Gadelha, a change of scenery was necessary. Gadelha is coming off a first-round submission victory over Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 212. It was her second straight victory after her unanimous decision loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk back in July 2016. After her victory at UFC 212, Gadelha told the media that she had put […]
For Claudia Gadelha, a change of scenery was necessary. Gadelha is coming off a first-round submission victory over Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 212. It was her second straight victory after her unanimous decision loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk back in July 2016. After her victory at UFC 212, Gadelha told the media that she had put […]
The most dangerous part of being a mixed martial artist isn’t fistfighting in a cage, believe it or not. It’s the weight cut that comes beforehand.
Fighters subject themselves to starvation diets and extreme dehydration in order to compete at the lowes…
The most dangerous part of being a mixed martial artist isn’t fistfighting in a cage, believe it or not. It’s the weight cut that comes beforehand.
Fighters subject themselves to starvation diets and extreme dehydration in order to compete at the lowest weight classes possible. This results in some eye-popping, but legitimately scary, body transformations from the day of the weigh-ins to the night of the fight. UFC 212’s Claudia Gadelha is a prime example of that, as the Brazilian strawweight showed what happens to a fighter’s body throughout the process.
(Warning, NSFW language below)
On Thursday night, just hours before the UFC 212 weigh-ins, Gadelha posted a photo on her Snapchat account showing what her body looks like during the cut (which was reposted on Twitter by MMA social media personality Zombie Prophet). Tasked with coming in at 115 pounds on Friday morning, Gadelha‘s torso was visibly shrunken to the point where the individual muscle groups of her abdomen clearly visible.
The specifics of how much weight she cut is unknown, but in 2016 she discussed how she previously cut up to 33 pounds for fights with MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz. A strict year-round diet halved that, but even so, forcibly losing more than 10 percent of one’s body weight in anticipation of a cage fight is no easy task.
That showed at the UFC 212 weigh-ins (check out the video above). While Gadelha made weight on the first attempt, the cut was even more obvious live than in pictures, with the clearest physical marker being a cavernous line down the center of her six-pack.
Of course, while the cut was undoubtedly difficult, Gadelha showed up fresh on fight night.
Rehydrated and looking healthy, she posted the most dominant win of her UFC career, taking out former title contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz in the first round.
But even though the contest is behind her, Gadelha finds herself right back at the start of the next cut. Keeping her weight low and staying ready for a short-notice fight is an unfortunate reality for her and most UFC fighters.
Precedent suggests she’ll be able to make the cut without incident and still perform at a high level. Unfortunately, she has to hope she can also avoid the potential long-term health issues that often come from these cuts.
Claudia Gadelha is flying high after her first round submission win over Karolina Kowalkiewicz last night (Sat. June 3, 2017). Gadelha is one of the most dominant 115-pound fighters on the UFC’s roster, as her only two losses in her mixed martial arts (MMA) career have come by the way of current strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Although […]
Claudia Gadelha is flying high after her first round submission win over Karolina Kowalkiewicz last night (Sat. June 3, 2017).
Gadelha is one of the most dominant 115-pound fighters on the UFC’s roster, as her only two losses in her mixed martial arts (MMA) career have come by the way of current strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Although she has lost to Jedrzejczyk twice already, Gadelha still considers herself the best fighter in the division.
During the UFC 212 post-fight press conference, Gadelha stated that she knows there are still some areas she needs to improve on before she can become champion of the world (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“I consider myself the best fighter in the division,” Gadelha said. “But I think a few things are missing that I needed to do to perform well inside of the Octagon. And that’s why I decided to change everything in my life. It has not been easy to leave my comfort zone. Ten years living in Rio, I went abroad alone, nobody there. Training with different trainers.
“It’s very, very tough, but I got to a point in my career where I felt I needed to improve and to become the fighter that I wanted to be, and that I desired to be.”
Jason Silva for USA TODAY Sports
Gadelha has no issues speaking about her two losses to Jedrzejczyk, however, she only believes that one of those defeats was legitimate:
“It doesn’t bother me at all to talk about that,” she said. “We’re in a sport where you can win and you can lose at anytime. Of course, we always want positive results, but we can’t always get that.
“And about my two defeats to Joanna, I only believe there is one. There’s two on paper, but if you were to analyze the fight, I did not lose that first fight to her. The second fight I really did lose, but if you were to look technically at it, I have better technique, and better MMA technique. I’m not a better striker, but I’m a better MMA fighter than Joanna. But I trained incorrectly to fight with her.”
As for what exactly went wrong in her training for Jedrzejczyk, Gadelha stated that she ‘killed’ her body during her preparation for the title bout:
“I killed myself,” she said. “I trained for 17 weeks in my camp, killing my body. I was destroyed, I couldn’t even stand up. I was killing my body. I’m that kind of Brazilian. I never give up, and I always give my best at all times. And sometimes giving your best is not the right thing. You have to follow the recipe or it’s not going to come out right. That’s exactly what I did in the second fight against Joanna.
“How do I see myself in the division today, I believe I’ve got the No. 1 ranking, at least on paper. Joanna is the champion. I have all the tools to beat her, but I needed to do what I did to reinvent myself, to be able to improve and to find what was missing in my game, as far as my cardio, my patience.”
Claudia Gadelha knew she needed to change something after a second decision loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk last year. So the Brazilian moved herself to Jackson-Wink MMA in New Mexico ahead of UFC 212 and a co-main event fight with fellow top challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. It worked, as Gadelha scored a quick finish over Kowalkiewicz and […]
Claudia Gadelha knew she needed to change something after a second decision loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk last year. So the Brazilian moved herself to Jackson-Wink MMA in New Mexico ahead of UFC 212 and a co-main event fight with fellow top challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. It worked, as Gadelha scored a quick finish over Kowalkiewicz and […]
The most dangerous part of being a mixed martial artist isn’t 
