HOUSTON – Almost one month on from seeing her fight with Alexa Grasso scrapped by commission officials at UFC 246, [autotag]Claudia Gadelha[/autotag] is hoping to get fixed up with a matchup as soon as possible. But she knows she’ll have to be patient.
Speaking to MMA Junkie while on guest fighter duty at UFC 247, former strawweight title challenger Gadelha said the disappointment from missing out on fighting in Las Vegas on Jan. 18 still hasn’t subsided.
“I’m still a little sad, you know. I’m a fighter,” she explained. “But now I’m just waiting for the UFC to see what’s next. Trying to move forward, I can’t do much about what happened, so I’m just waiting now to see what happens next.”
Her scuttled bout with Alexa Grasso came when commission officials ruled that the weight difference between the pair was too big after Grasso failed to make weight for their strawweight matchup. Gadelha made weight with half a pound to spare, at 115.5 pounds, but Grasso came in later in the session and weighed 121.5. Gadelha accepted the fight regardless, but the commission nixed the context due to the six-pound weight disparity.
“Claudinha” said that the whole issue could have been avoided if Grasso or her camp had reached out to her when they realised she was having issues with her cut, but the Brazilian didn’t receive a call and only realized that Grasso was in trouble when she hit the scale later that morning.
“The whole thing was the commission, right?” she recalled. “Because in the strawweight division we couldn’t be more than three pounds heavier than each other. If she had communicated with us the day before, or even the morning of (the weigh-ins), even before we jumped on the scale, I would have just had a drink or something and we would have been the same weight. That’s where my frustration was, because we couldn’t make it happen. But I don’t think she wanted to fight. I think she didn’t feel good and she didn’t want to fight, so I hope if that happens again with any other fighter, they communicate and they find a way to try to make the fight happen.”
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Grasso has since reached out to Gadelha and told the Brazilian that she had concerns about her own health, while the UFC has been careful about immediately rebooking Gadelha to ensure she also stays healthy moving forward. Gadelha says she’d love to return faster, but she’s happy to be guided by the UFC.
“The next morning I was in the (UFC Performance Institute) doing all the tests to see if I was healthy enough to make weight again in another couple of weeks. The P.I. was fine with everything, but the UFC – Dana and the matchmakers – want me to wait a little more. So they took care of me, they paid me, I have a great relationship with the UFC, and now I’m just waiting to see what they want me to do. Of course I wanted to fight in the next couple of weeks, you know? But they decided (and) I’m with them, you know.”
The UFC is set to head to Gadelha’s homeland in May for UFC 250 in Sao Paulo, but despite the lure of competing on a UFC pay-per-view in her home country, Gadelha admitted she’d rather get back into the cage before then.
“I wanted to fight before (then),” she said. “May seems just so long. I’m in the best shape of my life right now and I’m keeping my body in shape, I’m training every day still. I feel like nothing happened, because I didn’t fight. I’m training hard still, I didn’t go on vacation or anything. I was planning to go and see my family, but I’m back in the gym training every day and waiting to see what’s next. Probably I would like to fight in April. May seems too far, but if the UFC wants me to fight in Brazil, I’ll go.”
Regardless of where and when she fights next, Gadelha knows who she’d like to face when she eventually returns to action, with a pair of fellow strawweight contenders both on her radar.
“The fight I really wanted again was Carla Esparza,” she said. “I feel like we should do it again, especially now that I have amazing training and I feel I’ve brought my game to the next level. I feel like me and Carla should fight again, but I don’t know if the UFC wants the fight, I don’t know if she wants the fight.
“The other name we’re thinking about is Marina Rodriguez – the girl that just fought (Cynthia) Calvillo. We tried to contact her to see if she was willing to fight, but then she said she needs some time to go train wrestling and things like that. So these two names are in my mind right now and we’re waiting to see if it’s gonna happen.”
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