Former UFC strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha sadly retires from MMA
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Claudia Gadelha
Claudia Gadelha, former UFC women’s strawweight title challenger who fought the great Joanna Jędrzejczyk twice giving her the hardest fights of her career, has bid farewell to the competition as she retires from her professional mixed-martial-arts career. The Brazilian fighter last fought last year at UFC on ESPN 17 where she was defeated by Xiaonan Yan via unanimous decision.
Gadelha confirmed the news via her Instagram account in an InstaLive of around half an hour. Throughout her career, Gadelha had some shining moments as she has significant victories over Angela Hill, Carla Esparza, Courtney Casey, Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Jessica Aguiler.
“I was nauseous, throwing up,” Claudia Gadelha details incidents leading to retirement from MMA
Claudia Gadelha had her ups and downs in her fight career that has led her to record her UFC career with 7 wins and 5 losses, nevertheless, she has always fought the best of the division. Her peak of popularity came from her epic rivalry with former strawweight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk that was broadcast live during The Ultimate Fighter season 23.
On Instagram Live, Gadelha talks that in her last fight, she had a very bad concussion. “The headaches felt like a knife,” she said “[like] stabbing the back of my head, I was nauseous, like throwing up and feeling very very bad. Couldn’t even go for a walk or train.”
After this, Gadelha tells about her change of course in her interests, “I started studying nutrition at IIN, and I kind of fell in love with nutrition, health and performance and I started like studying other things… [In my last fight] I was rushed to the hospital at the beginning of my concussion, I also went to the emergency room twice, I was in Las Vegas by myself and my family’s in Brazil.”
As per sports journalist Alex Behunin, Gadelha has been offered a job by the UFC to help with the up and coming talent from Brazil which made her finally hang her gloves in relief. Gadelha’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz takes it to Twitter to say “I wanna congratulate one of the Pioneers woman of MMA @ClaudiaGadelha_ she is not only a great fighter, she is also a great human being, it was an honor to be a part of your legacy.”
Where do you put Claudia Gadelha in an all-time great list of female fighters in MMA that came in and fought through the revolutionary period of the growth spurt this sport had for women. We wish Gadelha, the very best for the next chapter of her life as she proceeds with no reasons to shy and all reasons to shine!
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